V Voice Samuel Arias-Sánchez, Manuel de la Mata, María Lojo and Rosario Cubero-Pérez University of Seville, Seville, Spain Synonyms Agent; Assert; Character; Communicate; Dispo- sition; Ego; Essence; Identity; Individuality; Nature; Opinion; Personality; Proclaim; Self; Speech; State; Temperament; Uniqueness Definition From a psychological perspective, “the voice” is the speaking personality or the speaking con- sciousness that reflects an identity (Emerson & Holquist, 1981). This conceptualization originates from the studies on literature by Mikhail Bakhtin, in particular from his analysis of Dostoevsky’ s work (Bakhtin, 1984). Bakhtin’ s concept of voice is not restricted to sound (vocal emission within oral language) but also refers to the semantic-social memory placed in the world (Bubnova, 2006). According to Bakhtin, we are participants in a world populated by the voices of others, either individuals or social groups, which represent their opinions, perspectives, and posi- tions. The voices are articulated in words and statements, and via these statements, individuals orient themselves, assimilate, and appropriate cul- ture (Bakhtin, 1979/1984). Implications for the Health Humanities Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1975) was a Russian phi- losopher, literary critic, and scholar who explored literary theory, ethics, and the philosophy of lan- guage. He was a highly influential academic in the Russian School of the early twentieth century, and then again in the 1960s when his ideas crossed the Iron Curtain. He worked on a wide variety of subjects, inspiring scholars working in disciplines as diverse as literary criticism, history, philoso- phy, sociology, and psychology, and developed this idea of voice and other key concepts of the psychology of communication. Following Bakhtin, words are not character- ized by individual meaning but are “cultural” products and, therefore, bearers of social values. In a word, someone is always given a voice. This voice, which is still personalized, represents dif- ferentiated ethical and ideological positions in continuous exchanges with other voices (Bubnova, 2006). According to Bakhtin, “When a member of a speaking collective comes upon a word, it is not as a neutral word of language, not as a word free from the aspirations and evaluations of others, uninhabited by others’ voices. No, he receives the word from another’ s voice and filled with that other voice. The word enters his context from another context, permeated with the © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Crawford, P. Kadetz (eds.), Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Health Humanities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26825-1_31-1