The role of magical thinking in hallucinations. Comparisons of clinical and non-clinical groups

Abstract Background: Magical thinking consists of accepting the possibility that events that, according to the causal concepts of a culture, cannot have any causal relationship, but might somehow nevertheless have one. Magical thinking has been related to both obsessive-compulsive disorder and schiz...

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Published in:Nordic journal of psychiatry 2014-11, Vol.68 (8), p.605-610
Main Authors: García-Montes, José M., Pérez-Álvarez, Marino, Odriozola-González, Paula, Vallina-Fernández, Oscar, Perona-Garcelán, Salvador
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Female
Hallucinations
Hallucinations - physiopathology
Humans
Male
Obsessive-compulsive Disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - physiopathology
Psychotic Disorders - physiopathology
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia - physiopathology
Thinking - physiology
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Summary:Abstract Background: Magical thinking consists of accepting the possibility that events that, according to the causal concepts of a culture, cannot have any causal relationship, but might somehow nevertheless have one. Magical thinking has been related to both obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia. Aims: The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of magical thinking in hallucinations of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. Methods: Four groups were recruited for this purpose from a clinical population (hallucinating schizophrenic patients, patients diagnosed with psychoses who had never hallucinated, obsessive-compulsive disorder patients and a clinical control group) and a non-clinical control group, who were given the Magical Ideation Scale. Results: The results show that magical ideation differentiates the group of schizophrenic patients with auditory hallucinations from the rest of the groups that participated in the design. Items related to "mind reading", to the presence of auditory illusions in response to sound stimuli, and to the sense of sometimes being accompanied by an evil presence are the most closely related to the presence of auditory hallucinations. Conclusions: Magical thinking, understood as beliefs in non-consensual modes of causation, is closely linked to auditory hallucinations in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.
ISSN:0803-9488
1502-4725
DOI:10.3109/08039488.2014.902500