Relationship Between Deafness and Psychotic Illness

Abstract

As Bleuler (1925) pointed out, all our relationships with our human environment are regulated through language. For this, auditory perception is essential, this can only take place if the peripheral auditory mechanism (viz., the tympanic membrane, ossicles, spiral ganglion of Corti and VIIIth nerve) is not diseased. When a person becomes deaf through disease of any of the latter, it does not matter which one of the peripheral mechanisms is involved, the result is always the same. Often not knowing what his fellow men are saying he becomes doubtful about them : losing auditory contact with them he has to rely on an inner world of auditory memories and images ; he misinterprets auditory sense impressions which have been distorted by disease, and incorporates tinnitus caused by such disease into his world ofinner phantasy. He projects his inner feelings of inferior ity caused by his deafness on to his environment and develops ideas of refer ence. Systematization soon follows, with active delusions of persecution. If the personality is sufficiently unstable a psychotic illness results.I have endeavoured to show the existence of a higher proportion of paranoid patients (i.e., having delusions of persecution) among deaf psychotics than non-deaf psychotics, in order to verify this hypothesis.The investigation was carried out in a mental hospital containing 1,lOO patients. I investigated those patients in the hospital reported as being deaf, testing their hearing by means of the spoken word, a watch, tuning fork, and in those caseswhich appeared by all tests to be stone deaf, dropping a bunch of keys heavily on the floor behind their backs to exclude hysterical deafness. I used written messagesto communicate with them. I also examined them with the auriscope. Audiometry was not practicable, for many were too paranoid and unco-operative.A number of supposedly deaf patients turned out to be schizophrenics who were withdrawn and were able to answer questions spoken to them after gaining their confidence. Some schizophrenics denied vehemently being deaf, though they obviously were, as one of them put it â€oe¿ Why, doctor I can hear the spirit of Billy Brooks (a fictitious person) tormenting me―â€"in other words his inner world of auditory phantasy was the only reality to him.The method of investigation was as follows: This deaf group was compared with a control group of non-deaf psychotics, selected at random, and matched for age and sex. Owing to the fact that the eldest deaf female aged 94 was the only one of her age in the hospital, and 990

Induced Hearing Deficit Generates Experimental Paranoia

“…Clinical observation has uncovered a relationship between deafness and psychopathology (1)(2)(3). In particular, when deafness occurs later in life and the hearing loss is relatively gradual, paranoid reactions are often observed (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14).…”

Hypnosis and belief: A review of hypnotic delusions

“…In particular, Zimbardo et al tested a theory that deafness, without awareness of its source, could cause paranoia. According to this theory, patients who are unaware of their own deafness may interpret their inability to hear other people talking as evidence that these people are whispering to conceal information or are conspiring against them (Cooper, 1976;Houston & Royse, 1954;Langdon, McKay, & Coltheart, 2008;Piker, 1937). Zimbardo et al gave six high hypnotisable participants a posthypnotic suggestion for partial deafness with amnesia for the source of their deafness.…”

Paraphrenia and late paraphrenia

“…19 " 22 At least 40% of paraphrenics suffer from longstanding deafness, unlike the age-associated sensory decline seen in the elderly 12 and significantly more than patients with late-onset affective disorders. 19 " 22 At least 40% of paraphrenics suffer from longstanding deafness, unlike the age-associated sensory decline seen in the elderly 12 and significantly more than patients with late-onset affective disorders.…”