voluntary hallucination

   The French term hallucination volontaire,orvol-untary hallucination, was introduced in or shortly before 1899 by the French physician Pierre Dheur to denote a type of hallucination that can be summoned up by individuals with a * hallucinatory disposition, for example by assuming a certain bodily position or steering their thoughts in a certain direction. As Dheur wrote, "It is true that the will has no direct and immediate influence upon the formation of images, but it is no less true that we often have the power to retain images, or even to reawaken them by assuming a favourable position. It is in this sense that the representation can be said to be voluntary, and it is in this same sense that we apply the word to hallucinations." Dheur characterized voluntary hallucinations as follows. "So we designate voluntary hallucinations as those in which an individual is able to see an object or hear a sound with equal ease as a normal person can represent that object mentally." He introduced the notion of the voluntary hallucination in order to tone down the classical doctrine that hallucinations are invariably of an involuntary nature. The term voluntary hallucination has also been employed as a synonym for the term * eidetic image.

   References

   Dheur, P. (1899). Les hallucinations volontaires (l'état hallucinatoire). Suivi d'un chapitre sur les hallucinations. Notes manuscrites et inédites du Dr. J. Moreau (de Tours). Paris: Société d'Éditions Scientifiques.