Evidence for similar concepts may be found in Christian authors. It may also have originated from the Latin compound ad lucem (ad- next to lucem-light Barcia, 1903). It may have had origin in the Latin word allucinor, allucinaris, used by Cicero, meaning the intent to mislead or equivocate ( Corominas, 1973).
This latter aspect in particular led to the emergence of other related concepts like “pseudohallucination,” “illusion,” and “hallucinosis.” The etymology of the word hallucination is controversial. It is also one of the hardest to define and delimitate from other psychopathological concepts. Hallucination is one of the most relevant symptoms in psychiatry. These and other controversial aspects regarding the evolution of the term hallucination and all its derivative concepts are discussed in this paper. Hallucinosis, first described in the context of alcohol consumption, is generally considered egodystonic, in which insight is preserved. Illusions are unanimously taken as distortions of real objects. The major characteristics that we found associated with pseudohallucinations were “lack of objectivity” and “presence of insight” (differing from hallucinations). Since its introduction the term pseudohallucination has been used with different meanings. The terms pseudohallucination, illusion, and hallucinosis are grafted into the concept of hallucination. More integrated perspectives like those proposed by Alonso Fernandez and Luque, highlights the heterogeneity of hallucinations and the multiplicity of their types and causes. By the twentieth century, some authors maintain that hallucinations are a form of delusion (Ey), while others describe them as a change in perception (Jaspers, Fish). Esquirol favors the intellectual origin, describing them as an involuntary exercise of memory and imagination. By then, a controversy begins on whether hallucinations have a perceptual or intellectual origin. However, the term was only fully integrated in psychiatry by Esquirol in the eighteenth–nineteenth centuries. From mid-seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, they acquire a medical quality in mental and organic illnesses. Prior to the seventeenth century, the experiences we now name hallucinations were valued within a cultural context, they could bring meaning to the subject or the world. Clinica Universitaria de Psiquiatria e Psicologia, Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.Diogo Telles-Correia *, Ana Lúcia Moreira and João S.
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