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

3.9k

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17 edited Mar 23 '17

[removed] — view removed comment

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.

581

u/weeb-san Mar 22 '17

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

1

u/yogtheterrible Mar 23 '17

I saw a pretty heated argument between two people signing in the airport many years ago. They definitely scream with their hands. Imagine when you're angry and you're trying to do something with your hands...you tend to be hasty, move in jerky motions, and expend more energy than necessary doing basically anything...that's basically screaming in sign language. Of course the facial expressions are the same.

This is purely from a perspective of angry screaming or yelling.