Specimen of Agraphia
The writing of insane people almost invariably shows the effect of mental disturbance. In some cases the form of the letters is changed, but they are still used in their right places. An illustration of this is given in the accompanying figure, which represents the signatures of the poet Lenau before and during his insanity.
Writing of Lenau, the poet, before and during insanity
In other instances there is both alteration in the form of the writing and paragraphia, or the use of the wrong letters. Thus Hölderlin, the German poet, who became harmlessly insane in 1806 at the age of thirty-six, ever afterwards misspelled his name in the manner here shown.
Signature of Hölderlin before and during insanity
A very interesting derangement of writing, which is probably due to the writing centre in one hemisphere of the brain becoming adapted to do the work of that in the other, is that commonly known as mirror writing. An example of this which came under the writer’s observation is shown below.
This shows the ordinary handwriting of a working woman of about sixty-six, who for the last three years has been paralysed in the right arm, and since then has produced mirror writing with her left hand.