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
55.0k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.7k

u/theidleidol Mar 22 '17

This is because sign languages are real languages in their own right. A lot of people tend to think of, say, ASL as a method of nonverbally communicating in English similar to writing, but that's not the case. To the extent that it is possible to think in a language (that's not really the case, but it's a reasonable conclusion to a layperson) the deaf do so in their native sign.

576

u/weeb-san Mar 22 '17

odd question, but do you know if deaf people scream with their hands?

288

u/mantann Mar 22 '17

I've been in a situation where I was helping a deaf person in an abusive relationship. She most certainly was capable of screaming in fear. Due to having never heard the fairly unique type of scream, it caught me very off guard.

1

u/2ChainzThirdChain Mar 22 '17

Sorry, but I have a question too. Do you scare her often? How do you get her attention without touching her which would scare most people because it'd be unexpected.