Voices for deaf people with illness?

When questioned by Di Briffa (DB) about hearing voices some responses from Deaf people in Briffa's (1999) article Hallucinations in Deaf people with a mental illness: lessons from the Deaf Clients indicated that deaf people with schizophrenia experience voices.

DB: "When you say you hear God talking to you, you're deaf. How do you hear him?" Client: "In my imagination, 'cause I have the power." DB: "Right so you don't see him signing to you?" Client: "No, just my imagination. 'Cause he has the power, cause the other people sign, they sign through the TV, and then tells people out, so I have nothing to do. Instead of me signing, cause you know I'd ...be too hard it'd be a lot easier... because the devil won't show me through the TV, so I can think these things up and I know that he's talking, and I know what needs to be done". (1999:73, transcript four).

Deaf people, like hearing people, can experience hallucinations, which can involve any of the senses (Briffa 1999). A research study by du Feu and McKenna (1999) examined patients who had been Deaf prior to the age of 2 years and who were diagnosed as schizophrenic/schizoaffective. They found that 59% of the patients gave accounts of verbal auditory hallucinations, which showed typical characteristics of schizophrenic hallucinations.

(Link to prelingually profoundly deaf schizophrenic patients who hear voices: a phenomological analysis. Journal??? June 1999, vol 99 (6) )

Some Deaf people who have schizophrenia have reported that they do experience voices. In a study conducted by Briffa (1999), some Deaf people described hearing voices, but when questioned about their deafness gave other interpretations. Some people also mentioned that despite removing their hearing aids, they still heard voices. Another client who was asked how they knew God was communicating with them responded by saying,

"Sign through hand, through my hand, it moves my hand. When I sign, no it's automatic in the brain, it automatically talks to God so I don't have to sign, talks from my brain, then from God to talk to me, uses my hand like that, it moves and talks to me and my brain talks to God and then it comes back through my hand and talks back to me and tells me" (Briffa 1999:73, Transcript five).

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