Can Mental Illness be Diagnosed from the Palm?

Hi Everyone:

I was just wondering whether the "classic" mental illnesses can be diagnosed from the palm? I am referring to the classically identified schizophrenia, clinical depression, and bipolar disorder. Some people might object to the use of these labels, but these disorders have been identified across cultures and peoples, and can therefore be considered a universal or ubiquitous part of the human condition.

Perhaps it is not appropriate to relate wholesale disorders to the palm. Maybe it is more a question of identifying symptoms: hallucinations, delusions, depression, mania, etc. Or maybe it is more a question of identifying predispositions rather than actual manifestations.

I posted this question on the Yahoo forum about two weeks ago (before I found out about this forum) but got frustratingly obtuse answers.

Thanks for your thoughts!

-Charles

Hi Charles,

Great qestion!

This topic has been discussed in the works of Charlotte Wolff, Yael Haft-Pomrock & Arnold Holtzman. These authors have described some of the typical hand features that can be featured with the various disorders that you've mentioned.

Often there appears to be a mix involved of inherited & developed hand characteristics. And of course there are hormonal issues involved as well.

But in general, I think one should really be aware of HOW these psychiatric disorders usually develop before one can start studying this topic.


I also would like to add that there are no 'formulas' available for DIAGNOSING any psychiatric disorders through the hand.




PS. But there are also various scientific publications available; one of the most impressive examples - which perfectly illustrates how complex this topic really is - is the work of Amrita Bagga, titled:

'Dermatoglyphics in Schizophrenics', a large section of this book is available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=xT6To27M_6UC

cshahar wrote: Martijn, thanks so much for the recommendations! I have just ordered two books by Haft-Pomrock. Wolff's book seems a little more difficult to find for sale. I must admit I find the area of psychological diagnosis through the palm to be very fascinating.

So if I am understanding you correctly, there are no clearly distinguishing features for schizophrenia in the hand, but rather more subtle clues. I find that surprising, since it is such an extremely psychologically debilitating illness, at least for one's functioning. And one would have thought that clinical depression would be more explicitly indicated in the hand as well.

-Charles

Hi Charles,

The fundamental problem with schizophrenia is that it is a very complex disorder. As you probably know, it has hardly any unique characteristics which are never seen in other mental disorders. And of course, there are the various subtypes!

It has been suggested that schizophrenia can be described as a condition of complex inheritance, with many different potential genes involved - each of small effect, with different pathways for different individuals.


So, in the perspective of the complex etiology (multiple causes) ... I think it is not surprizing at all that schizophrenia is not featured with very clear distinguishing features in the hand (though I think in most people who have schizophrenia you will find multiple of the characteristics that I described on my website).

I also would like to add that while the work of Bagga is focussed on the dermatoglyphics (excluding the hand lines), the work of Haft-Pomrock & Wolff is much more focussed on the hand lines & morphology (including: postures, finger length).

Charles, did you notice that I have a large section about 'Psychiatry & Handdiagnostics' available in the scientific course at my website? Page 13 to 20 are all focussed on schizophrenia. You can start reading here:
http://www.handresearch.com/course/psychiatry-1.htm

Though I must notice that I wrote those materials in 2002 (backthen I had no access to Bagga's book, but Wolff & Haft-Pomrock are mentioned!)


[b]Fingerprint of a schizophrenic patient.[/b]

Great site Martijn! I plan to study it carefully! You are right about schizophrenia being a complex and multi-faceted disorder, with a complex etiology. I took a quick look at some of the results you quoted from Bracha on the predictive accuracy of two features:

1----
Interruption in head line---------
78.0 %
2----
Interruption in heart line---------
71.0 %

That seems highly significant when you consider that correlations between typical personality tests consider .4 or .5 to be significant (explaining 16-25% as common variance).

-Charles

I am so looking forward to taking more part in this discussion when I have more time, as it is an area of special interest for me.

About 12 years ago I studied Charlotte Wolff's work in some depth, but since forgotten what I learnt

Around that time, I went to a Cheirological Society study group weekend about "Mental illness & mental handicap in the hand". Among the presentations was a lady from Israel who was studying schizophrenia & hands (think I still have my notes somewhere...). During the weekend we were presented with some hand prints and were asked to diagnose the 'mental health/handicap condition'. Most people were correct in their diagnosis of depression, schizophrenia, we all got the Down's syndrome correct, (I can't recall what else). But NOT ONE OF US correctly diagnosed the psychopath, who had the most 'normal' looking hands of all the ones presented. a bit scary eh?

Hi Lynn. Scary, but perhaps not surprising, since their modus operandi is to deceive and manipulate. Is it possible that concealment and subterfuge extends to their hands as well? I seem to remember Benham referring to the sociopath at one point. Will have to research it more.

Do you have a summary of your notes related to depression and schizophrenia, i.e. the most prominent signs? I would imagine there is a big difference between a mildly depressive personality and someone who is psychotically depressed and has ceased normal functioning. I would love to see some of the details...

-Charles

Hi Charles. I'll try to find my notes.

Hi all,

Now I want everyone to listen very carefully with what I'm going to say, and I'm going to share my unfortunate experience with the previous P.I. Forum.

Even if you have the knowledge, experience and the qualification to diagnose someone with depression, which I will use depression for this discussion, you do not have the right to do so unless you have the necessary knowledge about the personality/psychiatric/mental disorder.

I have diagnosed several individuals with depression, not clinical or psychiatric depression, and every time I have been right. I have diagnosed myself with depression and several days later I was with a psychologist who diagnosed me as well. No where in any of my textbooks when I studied for my qualification was depression discussed and in any of my other books I have bought throughout the years is diagnosed dealt with, except the Psychodiagnostic Chirology textbook by Dr. A. Holtzman Ph.D., which I have not dealt with regarding depression. How I know about depression, is firstly, because from personal experience from diagnosing and it was right, but most importantly, when I was studying at the time, my mentor Chr. Kevin Leak B.A. Hons., was, and more than likely still, doing research on depression from the hundreds of his patients and from working at various institutions which deal with individuals with mental disorders and depression. This is the basis of my knowledge.

Now, how can depression be identified? On the previous forum I uploaded a photo of the Air line (Head line in palmistry) and I was slandered by individuals who know nothing about 5 Element Chirology and nothing about Psychodiagnostic Chirology telling me that my 'theory' is ridiculous and no basis for it and that depression is a phenomenon. They had no right to tell me that since Kevin Leak has for years been studying depression that can be diagnosed in the hands and the fact is (back then) I have studied 2 years of clinical psychology including depression.

In Psychodiagnostic Chirology, you are able to diagnose someone with personality disorders and hidden syndromes, as said in the index of the textbook. What Holtzman does is provides an etiology with each disorder and syndrome where every other fails to do so.

So if you are going to diagnose someone with schizophrenia, you need to be prepared to explain to the individual what it is. What I'm trying to say is. Have the knowledge (theory and practice) of a disorder/illness before you have the right to diagnose, whether you do it on yourself or on someone else.

Thanks,
Ron.

Hi Martijn (and anyone else interested).

I have just finished reading Charlotte Wolff’s “The Hand in Psychological Diagnosis”. It was an interesting read. First, many of the terms she uses were interesting, albeit slightly confusing. Some, like paraphrenia, are no longer in circulation, although this condition corresponds most closely to a paranoid personality disorder (a milder, but non-psychotic version of paranoid schizophrenia). Also, some of her terms would not be considered politically correct. For instance, she describes the intellectually impaired as “mental defectives”.

So you were right Martijn. To ask whether schizophrenia can be diagnosed using the palm is a bit of a non-starter. There are different forms of schizophrenia, and according to Wolff, different markers associated with each condition.

There were two basic methodological limitations associated with her research. First, tests of significance were not included, to test whether the strength of the associations were beyond what would be expected by chance. Second, the control group was somewhat small. She also had an annoying habit of not including control numbers in every table, and sometimes she included only frequencies, and I had to calculate percentages myself.

Now to the question of whether we can diagnose mental illness through the palm: The answer is not really. There are several reasons for this:

1. Some of the features found in the palms of schizophrenics or manic depressives are also found in the hands of people who would be considered in the “normal” range of mental functioning.

2.The prominent features found in the palms of mentally ill people, are not found in the palms of all mentally ill people, or even in the majority of such people.

3. Most of the particular features found in the palms of mentally ill people are found prominently across more than one category of mental illness.

4. Some of the features described by Wolff (such as faults in the upper transverse or heart line) are too vague to have diagnostic validity, although they can be used in a generalized way.

The etiology of the condition complicates matters. Congenital problems seem to have a much more dramatic influence on the shape and markings of the hand. An acute schizophrenic condition, triggered by a harsh environment / dysfunctional parenting may have an entirely different manifestation in the palm. To complicate matters further, Wolff implies that endocrinological conditions are associated with all types of mental illnesses and imbalances, and are the key factors in understanding how the palm relates to such disorders.

So what can we conclude? If certain abnormal features are present in the hand we can conclude that a person LIKELY has some mental or emotional disturbances. And in fact Wolff says just that. But to declare what type of disturbances with any degree of confidence is a tricky proposition at best.

So this naturally leads to the question of what use is palmistry in "diagnosing" personality traits and dispositions? If the four points I describe above also apply to character analysis through the palm, are the limitations to severe to be considered useful?

Comments appreciated!

Thanks,

-Charles

Hello,

Please note my contributions are simply observations from sitters as I have no formal training in this field.

On schizophrenia- A friend - a Solomon Islander who has severe episodes requiring high security when active- has a very short head line barely or not quite reaching the middle finger- and four huge - in lay terms- mystic crosses.

He was from a family of witch doctors on his island home in the Solomon's and had been in the Australian army then dismissed after developing psychological problems after serving in Timor. The acute phase started after working for a security firm who also was involved in drug running and smoking cannabis.

I have noticed composite loops and whorls on the mount of lunar often are associated with mental health problems.

I never would even contemplate 'diagnosing' any condition but after hundreds of hands do note certain line configurations can help with forming questions you may ask as to the real reason the person is sitting- often it can be a last call for help. In fact, people have thanked me and made big life changes after discussing things they need to work with in their hands.

Felicity

Aug 16th Charles said

cshahar wrote:Do you have a summary of your notes related to depression and schizophrenia, i.e. the most prominent signs?

Hi Charles sorry I took some time to get back to you. I found the notes from the seminar but I remember now we were told to keep the schizophrenia study for our private ref, as the scientific study hadn't been published - that was 1998. I don't know if it ever was published, I can't find it online. The woman who was doing the study was Talma Brill from Israel. There were 7 parameters that she found significant in the hands of schizophrenics.
We didn't study depression at the seminar.

I also found the talk I gave about Charlotte Wolff's "The Hand in Psychological Diagnosis - Chapter 6, the Hand of the Mental Defective".
As you say, some of her terminology is not politically correct these days but were the actual medical terms in her day eg "cretin, idiots, feeble-minded" etc. re your comment about endocrinological conditions - Wolff says that Downs syndrome is endocrine in origin, but now we know it is due to an extra chromosome.

I haven't read all of this thread yet but one thing that tends to alert me is when I see something in a hand that appears to be in conflict with something else that would be unexpected such as........... a very delicate hand with earth width lines or appearing very empty or a strong hand with excessive watery lines.