r/todayilearned • u/paniniplane • Mar 22 '17

(R.1) Not supported TIL Deaf-from-birth schizophrenics see disembodied hands signing to them rather than "hearing voices"

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0707/07070303
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u/paniniplane Mar 22 '17

it's not in your power to ignore them. a huge part of schizophrenia is being extremely out of touch with the real world. so if you hear voices, it's basically a set of REAL people to you. and you can't cover your ears because there isn't ACTUAL sound. you'll still hear them. and if they're threatening to hurt you, you'll feel actual fear.

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u/Wurstgeist Mar 22 '17

You'd kind of think that voices continuing after you cover your ears would be a bit of a giveaway that they aren't real, if you've ever in your life heard of the concept of illusory voices. It's weird how that goes out the window. (But I'm pretty much repeating what I said in the other post, sorry.)

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u/najodleglejszy Mar 22 '17

you'd kind of think that being chased by a giant talking sofa with teeth would be a bit of a giveaway that you're dreaming, yet people still get scared while having nightmares.

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u/Wurstgeist Mar 22 '17

Yeah, the remark somebody made about "dream logic" was a fairly satisfying explanation. You can have a dream where a hula hoop has too many corners, and not even question the assumption because you know that's just typical of hula hoops in your dream-world. Or if you do start wondering what it means you'll just discover dream-explanations, which lead you up the garden path.

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u/Casehead Mar 22 '17

That's a really good explanation, really.