Also known as brobdingnagian hallucination. Both terms denote a *macroptic hallucination depicting one or more disproportionally large human figures, either in isolation or embedded in an environment of regular proportions. The gulliverian hallucination constitutes the conceptual and phenomenological counterpart of the * lilliputian hallucination. All the above terms are inspired by the novel Gulliver's Travels, written by the Irish poet and author Jonathan Swift (16671745). It is known that Swift suffered from symptoms reminiscent ofMénière's disease, and that he experienced cognitive changes, memory impairment, personality alterations, language disorder, and facial paralysis during the last 3 years of his life. It has been speculated that the miniature and giant figures featuring in Gulliver's Travels were inspired by * visual hallucinations experienced by Swift himself. According to the French psychiatrist Henri Ey (1900-1977), gulliverian hallucinations differ from lilliputian ones not only because of their perceived size, but also because of the affective tone they evoke. Ey depicts gul-liverian hallucinations as depressing or downright frightening images, which are often executed in sombre colours such as grey and black. Although a certain association with *peduncular hallucinosis has been suggested, the pathophys-iology of gulliverian hallucinations is basically unknown.
References
Ey, H. (1973). Traité des hallucinations. Tome 1. Paris: Masson et Cie., Éditeurs.
Lorch, M. (2006). Language and memory disorder in the case of Jonathan Swift: Considerations on retrospective diagnosis. Brain, 129, 3127-3137.
Swift, J. (1726). Gulliver's travels. London: B. Motte.
Dictionary of Hallucinations. J.D. Blom. 2010.