Congratulations to Dr Ben Alderson-Day, who has won a 2023 British Psychological Society (BPS) Book Award.
Ben, who is an Associate Professor in our Psychology Department, shared first place in the popular science category with his book, Presence: The strange science and true stories of the unseen other.
The book explores the hallucinatory experiences of people who hear voices and the causes behind that.
It was inspired by research Ben conducted as part of Hearing the Voice, a 10-year interdisciplinary project funded by Wellcome. The project helped provide resources to help voice-hearers, their families and mental health professionals.
Presence is the first book Ben has written. The BPS Book Awards recognise the very best psychology authors from across the United Kingdom.
Ben hopes the award will inspire students of psychology.
He said: “It’s a real honour to receive this award. As a student I was inspired to work in psychology by reading previous BPS winners like ‘Madness Explained’ by Richard Bentall and ‘Consciousness: Creeping up on the Hard Problem’ by Jeffrey Gray. I am delighted that Presence is in such illustrious company, and I hope it can have the same effect for psychologists of the future.”
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