Why do psychiatrists ask: "do you hear voices?"
It is a baited question posed to schizophrenics. Also, it is a stupid question because on the one hand, if the patient says: 'yes,' then it is acknowledged that the patient hears 'voices.' However, the doctor can't hear the 'voices.' But, the doctor is acknowledging the patient verbatim when a patient says that they hear 'voices.'
(Yet, few psychiatrists or members of the public will acknowledge anything else a person diagnosed with schizophrenia suppositions, instead the norm being to assume that the person 'hears voices' 24/7/365. Thus, schizophrenics are discounted: except in the case(s) when the patient says that they 'hear voices,' which is stigma).
The term 'voices' originated from hospital settings wherein a patient(s) used the most apt term available to them in their limited vocabulary and education to describe their experience. The term 'voices' was then coined by psychiatrists and used in the DSM-IV because psychiatrists heard the term on the ward originally from patients. (Royalties?)
One supposition is that there is no such thing as 'voices' to describe a schizophrenic's experience. 'Hearing voices' is 'hearing things' that are not 'there' or within earshot, in terms of the DSM-IV schizophrenia definition of it. Thinking is 'voices.' A person sounds out words in the brain before uttering the words. It might take a nano-second for the brain's thought (sounding out) to reach the tongue. In that nano-second, it is a 'voice' that is not 'there.'
Thus, a thought is a 'voice(s).' Everybody has thoughts. So, everybody hears voice(s). The term 'voices' to describe what a schizophrenic might be experiencing is a misconstrued description of what is 'disorganized thinking' to one degree or another in terms of the manifestation of 'disorganized thinking' in varied individuals: not just schizophrenics.
Lastly, if 'voices' originate from within the brain because there is no other source for them, then what is 'voices' but thoughts?
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