Dotando de contexto y sentido a la escucha de voces: el enfoque Maastricht como tecnología del yo para un cuidado de sí

Sandra González Durán

doi:10.18294/sc.2026.6033

Giving context and meaning to hearing voices: The Maastricht approach as a technology of the self for the care of the self

Sandra González Durán Ph.D. in Sociology. Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Work, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Álava Campus, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, Spain.

Received: 17 November 2025, Accepted: 29 May 2026, Published: 18 June 2026

https://doi.org/10.18294/sc.2026.6033

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Abstract

Within the biopsychiatric model, hearing voices is understood as an auditory hallucination, usually associated with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. In contrast, the Maastricht approach understands hearing voices as a survival mechanism and holds that it is possible to learn to live with voices and to make sense of them. Using a qualitative design and drawing on a governmentality perspective that conceptualizes the Maastricht approach as a technology of the self, this study conducts a discourse analysis of the Maastricht interview guide. The analysis is organized around the following categories: the aims and actions promoted by the approach; how it conceptualizes the voice-hearer, the voices, and the relationship between the voice-hearer and their voices. The Maastricht approach differs from biopsychiatric forms of self-management in three respects: voices are understood as meaningful and situated experiences; the subject is conceived as relational; and the relationship between the subject and their voices is characterized by mutual influence. Consequently, this tool for self-knowledge and self-transformation makes visible a situated form of suffering rooted in personal, collective, and structural contexts, in which voices are part of the ecosystem of a subject engaged in the practice of taking care of the self.

Keywords: Mental Health, Self Care, People with Psychiatric Disorders, Dissent

Categories: Anthropology, Dissidences, Mental health, Healthcare models

Funding: Eusko Jaurlaritza | POS-2018-1-002 , Eusko Jaurlaritza | POS-2019-2-006

Full-text of the article is available for this language: Español.

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