INTERVOICE statement of intent

The need to develop new kinds of interventions other than those offered by psychiatry is paramount and should be based on embracing the following:

• That the most valuable information is provided by the people experiencing psychosis. It is their perspective and experience that should have paramount importance, especially over any psychiatric theory
• It follows that those people experiencing psychosis; those who have experienced psychosis in the past; those who have been patients; those who have survived psychiatry; those who have avoided psychiatry and who have given much thought to their experiences and problems – and - to the value of psychiatric interventions should be the basis of new knowledge and practice 
• That a new way of thinking about “mental illness” is required, a conceptual leap away from professional theories to patient’s experience
• That we need to stop thinking about specific diseases such as schizophrenia etc. As these are just labels, part of a mindset and not scientifically valid. They are the mental constructs of professionals.

For a new direction for psychiatry to be realised the following issues need to be addressed:

• Symptoms psychiatry considers part of mental diseases can be reinterpreted as coping strategies and psychoses are sometimes more of a survival strategy than a disease
• The new paradigm for psychosis understands experiences, behavioural patterns and symptoms as having meaning; that behavioural patterns are coping strategies, and that causes of “symptoms” can be found in the persons’ life
• Therefore psychosis should not be the object of treatment but instead the persons’ behaviour should be interpreted as personal strategies for coping with overwhelming life experiences
• It is pointless to look for a specific cause for a specific kind of psychosis, because they are reactions to problems in life and reactions are just as unique as peoples problems are
• The psychiatry of the future would start from the premise that “symptoms” are not the effects of specific diseases, but signals of the different ways in which people come to terms with problems in life, which although serious, are common to us all

This approach will give much needed attention to the problems behind psychosis and to experiences like hearing voices and hopefully create possibilities for solutions.

It is up to the person experiencing these phenomena to determine if they wish to make the journey of self-discovery, it is their voyage and the role of mental health workers is to help them plan it and if asked to support them through it.

Based on a speech given by Professor Marius Romme in January 1999 at a conference entitled “Coping with Psychosis” held to honour of Marius’s retirement from the Maastricht Mental Health service.

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