"When Hearing Voices is a Good Thing"

I found this article to be extremely interesting as it takes a mental illness (that is thought to be purely bad for both the person and society) and sheds some light on why it's not always bad. Schizophrenia is the mental disorder that people often associate with being "crazy". People suffering from the disorder often experience some sort of hallucination, whether its visual, auditory, or olfactory.  In the article, it explains that many of the auditory hallucinations Americans experience are violent and hostile; but research shows that's not the case for those in collectivist cultures.  While the voices heard by Americans said things such as torturing people and cutting someone's head off, the Indians and Africans studied reported that their voices were friendly and even reminded them of their friends or family. They were able to talk to their voices as if they had a companion or friend with them. Just changing the way they perceived their voices altered what they said. So hearing voices isn't as bad as one would think.