Department of Why Not

In England, this new cognitive approach to psychosis and the efforts of Hearing Voices Network are independent of each other, and are sometimes at odds.  H.V.N.’s leading members, for instance, frequently criticize even sympathetic academic researchers for being insufficiently political.  Yet both approaches share a similar purpose in seeking to place voice-hearing within the continuum of normal human experience – one, in order to better treat patients, the other, out of a firm conviction that hearing voices need not interfere with leading an otherwise “normal” life. [emphasis added]

Of course that refers to hearing voices that aren’t actually there.  Here is the full and fascinating story.  It advises people who wish to talk back to the voices to carry around cell phones.

How extreme must a single weirdness be, before a person can’t much function in the real world or be counted as "normal"?