The differences between hallucination, pseudo-hallucination, and hallucinosis

Consciousness is a strange psychological phenomenon. On the one hand, it always appears hand in hand with the perception of what surrounds us: when we are conscious, always we are aware that beyond our body there is something: shapes, colors, sounds, textures, or simply gravity.

However, these perceptions do not have to be true and, in fact, they almost never are, to a greater or lesser extent. Fortunately, only in some cases this degree of distortion of reality becomes so intense that it is a sign of mental pathology.

Next we will see what they are the differences between hallucination, hallucinosis, and pseudo-hallucination, three types of ruptures with reality that can be confused by their superficial resemblance.

• You may be interested: "Hallucinations: definition, causes, and symptoms"

Differences between hallucination, hallucinosis, and pseudo-hallucination

To understand how these three types of symptoms should be distinguished, we will first review what exactly each of them consists of.

What are hallucinations?

A hallucination is a perception that has not been caused by a real element and that is attributed to the environment external to oneself. For example, someone who hears hallucinated voices is unable to distinguish between these and the rest of the noises that come from the environment, he is simply unable to locate who is emitting them.

At the same time, hallucinations are also characterized by anosognosia, the fact of ignoring that what is experienced is a symptom of mental disorder or illness.

On the other hand, although most hallucinations are auditory, they can occur in any sensory modality: visual, tactile, etc.

• Related article: "The 15 types of hallucinations (and their possible causes)"

Pseudohallucinations

In the case of pseudo-hallucinations, these perceptions are also basically imaginary and do not come from a real element. However, in this case the person who experiences them is able to distinguish between the perceptions that come from the external environment and pseudo-hallucinations, which he attributes to a In his mind".

If the patient experiencing hallucinations claims to hear voices that are of the same nature as that of the doctor who In the interview, the sufferer presents pseudo-hallucinations responds affirmatively and without hesitation to the question: "Do you hear voices that come from your head?".

On the other hand, in pseudo-hallucination, despite the fact that the person recognizes that the voices, images or tactile experiences do not are produced by external and therefore objective phenomena (detectable by anyone nearby), considers that what happens does not indicate the presence of any mental disorder. That often means that help is not sought.

What is hallucinosis?

Hallucinosis resembles hallucination and pseudo-hallucination in that in these three cases the experience is not produced directly by something that really exists and that has the appearance that this "appearance" seems to indicate. However, hallucination differs from the other two in several respects.

First, hallucinosis is distinguished from hallucination in that the person knows that the experience does not come from outside, is not produced by an objective phenomenon: it is a product that only manifests itself in the consciousness of it and that cannot be perceived by others.

Second, hallucinosis is distinguished from pseudohallucination in that there is no anosognosia. There is a real awareness that what is happening is not normal and that it is a symptom serious enough to call for help.

What kinds of diseases cause them?

Both hallucinations and pseudo-hallucinations tend to be associated more with psychiatric disorders, whereas hallucinosis occurs in neurological disorders.

This is so because in the first two the degree of involvement of the nervous system is so general that it affects all consciousness and abstract thought globally. The fact that a person does not see a warning sign from the first moment to see, for example, a 10-meter dragon floating in the air, is in itself a symptom of pathology. The same happens when you do not raise any suspicions about mental health if you hear a voice for days and you can never locate the speaker.

The hallucinosis, on the other hand, the degree of involvement of the disease is not so general as in hallucination and pseudo-hallucination, and it focuses on specific areas of the brain, leaving the others relatively untouched. This makes hallucinosis relatively more frequent, especially in pathologies resulting from the use of psychoactive substances, for example.

• You may be interested: "The 8 types of Psychotic Disorders"

Is it correct to use these concepts in mental health?

There are criticisms about the use of the term "pseudo-hallucination", since it has connotations that can lead to stigmatize patients who suffer from this condition.

The name suggests that the person makes up the events it describes and that he claims to have experienced something that, as we have seen, does not correspond to reality: although there is no stimulus as the person perceives it, This phenomenon is not a voluntary invention, something that is used only to access certain special care by the health system, for example.

That is why there are reasons to simply use the term "hallucination" for these cases. Oddly enough, in psychiatry and clinical psychology appearances can matter a lot, especially when they affect the quality of life of patients.