HALLUCINATORY NEOLOGISM

A term used to denote a newly formed word which presents itself in the form of hallucinatory content, usually as a *verbal auditory hallucination (VAH) or *verbal hallucination. The German psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers (1883-1969) mentions the case of Daniel Paul Schreber (1842-1911), a German judge who was hospitalized on various occasions because of severe psychotic episodes and who maintained that he heard the "basic language ofhis rays" in the form of strange and alien words. As Jaspers recounts, "He always emphasized that until he heard the words they had been quite unknown to him." Occasionally, auditory hallucinations may present in a language not spoken by the affected individual. However, it is generally assumed that such hallucinations in an actual foreign language can only arise when the affected individual has at least been passively exposed to that language.

Jaspers, K. (1997).Generalpsychopathology. Volume 1. Translated by Hoenig, J., Hamilton, M.W. Baltimore, MA: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Schreber, D.P. (1903).Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken nebst Nachträgen und einem Anhang über die Frage: 'Unter welchen Voraussetzungen darfeine für geisteskrank erachtete Person gegen ihren erklärten Willen in einer Heilanstalt festgehalten werden?'Leipzig: Oswald Mutze.