Hallucinations in nonpsychotic children

Abstract

The question of whether a given child is hallucinating may be difficult to ascertain and depends on such criteria as (a) the vividness of the experience, (b) the patient's degree of credence, (c) his sense of an ego-alien source, (d) his sense that the experience is nonvolitional, and (e) whether he acts on the experience. Although hallucinations are considered very peculiar, exotic experiences, their occurrence (in children) is not limited to such severe afflictions as schizophrenia and acute brain syndromes; they are found in such “ordinary” conditions as neuroses, personality disorders, transient situational disturbances, and cultural-familial mental retardation. Hallucinations can yield much information about “dynamic diagnosis” (as contrasted with clinical diagnosis) and about developmental processes. Etiologic factors include limited intellect, chronic emotional deprivation, current stress, subcultural confirmation of hallucinatory experiences, and hypercathexis of a particular perceptual mode.