As we will argue, much of this work is flawed by an ambiguity between different meanings of inner/outer-terminology-in particular, between a literal meaning (do voices seem to come from within or without the physical boundaries of one’s body/head?), and a metaphorical meaning concerning the reality that voices seem to have (do voices appear to really be there in the ‘outer’, mind-independent world, or is it obvious to subjects that the voices are there only ‘in their mind’?). 1999), and variables in empirical studies (e.g., Junginger and Frame 1985 Nayani and David 1996 Copolov et al. Contrasts between ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ voices-voices that seem to be located inside or outside one’s body, head, or mind-have been used to define subtypes of AVH-like experiences (e.g., Kandinsky 1885 Jaspers 1911/1963, 1912/1963 1959/ 1997), diagnostic criteria (in particular, for schizophrenia e.g., Fish 1962 Sedman 1966 Mellor 1970), items in assessment tools (e.g., World Health Organization 1990a, 1990b Mental Health Research Institute 1992 Haddock et al. Inner/outer-terminology is one important linguistic resource that voice-hearers, therapists, researchers and teachers use to articulate abnormal and sometimes bizarre experiences. In this article, we aim to show that ambiguous and misunderstood usage of inner/outer-terminology has had pernicious effects also in a more specialized context, namely, the study of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations (AVHs)-i.e., of episodes in which subjects ‘hear voices’ in the absence of a stimulus. Philosophers like Wittgenstein, Ryle, and Rorty have influentially argued that the uncritical use of such language is responsible for major philosophical confusions about the mind (Wittgenstein 1993 Ryle 1949/ 2000 Rorty 1979). Contrasts between the ‘inner’ and the ‘outer’, that which is ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ of us (our minds, our heads), pervade the way we talk about mental phenomena and their relation to the non-mental world.
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