One of the “Questions we’re still considering” was whether deaf schizophrenics hear voices or imagine someone signing to them. I jokingly mentioned this to one of the contractors here who promptly pulled this up:
Upshot is that this study found that some do in fact have auditory hallucinations even though they are severly deaf.
Valgard, as embarrased as I am to admit it, I do not have a photographic memory of all of Cecil’s columns. I don’t suppose you could post a link to the column in question? Thanks.
Ah, silly me, I didn’t read all of today’s column before posting.
Hey, thanks, Valgard - I thought the question (aside from the joke about signing) was good, and was going to come in here to ask about it myself.
Helen Keller discussed her “inner voice” in some of her writings and interviews as well. Most people think in a combination of words and images and she had only the vaguest recollection of either (“wah-wah” not lending itself much to nuance), but she did have a form of both in her cognitive facilities.
Hijack: I’ve often wondered how blind adolescents know if they’re gay.
The referred to study leaves a lot to be desired. Having auditory input is not the same as hearing voices etc. I asked my mom, a clinical psychologist, this question some time ago. Who knows better than mom?! The upshot is deaf people see hallucinations, and yes potentially sees someone signing, they do not hear voices or activity we would classify as interpretable sound. Likewise, blind people will have auditory hallucinations and not visual ones. It works the same way as their dreaming. You can’t dream in a sense you don’t have.
When Joseph Mesa was arrested for two muders at Gallaudet University (both Mesa and his victims were deaf) I believe he originally claimed insanity and claimed that talking hands were telling him to kill people.
The jury didn’t buy it.
The old Senor Wences defense. They never buy it. S’all right.
So when a deaf schizophrenic who has talking hands telling him to kill takes medication, does it make the hands go away or just put gloves on them?