A Dictionary of Hallucinations

The Dictionary of Hallucinations, second edition, is an alphabetical listing of issues pertaining to hallucinations and other misperceptions. They can be roughly divided into four categories:

1.    Definitions of individual hallucinatory symptoms

2.    Medical conditions and substances associated with the mediation of hallucinations

3.    Historical figures who are known to have experienced hallucinations

4.    Miscellaneous issues

Each of the definitions of individual hallucinatory symptoms includes:

• a definition of the term
• its etymological origin
• the year of introduction (if known)
• a reference to the author or authors who introduced the term (if known)
• a description of the current use
• a brief explanation of theetiology and pathophysiology of the symptom at hand (if known)
• references to related terms
• references to the literature

The second edition of A Dictionary of Hallucinations serves as a reference manual for neuroscientists, psychiatrists, psychiatric residents, psychologists, neurologists, historians of psychiatry, general practitioners, and academics dealing professionally with concepts of hallucinations and other sensory deceptions. This new edition provides updated information and references, and includes newly discovered hallucinations, bringing together contributions by other authorities within the field, with all the entries edited by Prof. Blom.

Doody's Review: The book's purpose is to provide a collection of terms and related information for a variety of clinical and non-clinical applications, that can serve as a springboard for further inquiry about specific and lesser-known sensory phenomena. Not only does this book meet its objectives, but it fills a void in providing a comprehensive list of technical terms matched to otherwise hard-to-describe human experiences.  

Jan Dirk Blom (1965, the Netherlands) is a professor of clinical psychopathology at Leiden University. He obtained his MD in 1994, and started working as a resident in the Neurology Department of the University Medical Center Utrecht. In 1996 he switched to psychiatry, and in 2001 registered as a clinical psychiatrist. In 2003 he obtained his PhD at Leiden University’s Department of Philosophy. He has been working at Parnassia Psychiatric Institute in The Hague since 1996. He specialises in the field of psychotic disorders, and is head of the Outpatient Clinic for Uncommon Psychiatric Syndromes. In addition, he is director of Parnassia’s Psychiatric Residency Training Programme for Adult Psychiatry. He published over 100 scientific texts, as well as several books.