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Psychosomatic Medicine 10:203-222 (1948)
© 1948 American Psychosomatic Society

Emotional Aspects of Hearing Loss

PETER HOBART KNAPP M.D.1

1 Psychiatric Department of The Massachusetts General Hospital and The Harvard Medical School

Five hundred and ten patients from an Army Hearing Rehabilitation Service were studied psychiatrically, and classified according to the relationship of their hearing loss to their psychiatric disability.

Some cases showed no demonstrable interrelationship. The incidence of such cases was 3.7 per cent of total admissions during a six months period.

Some patients, who tended to have more severe and more chronic loss, reacted neurotically to the constricting effects of deafness, appearing to defend themselves by overcompensated outgoing activity, denial of hearing loss, withdrawal from society, displacement of anxiety, or exploitation of hearing loss. The incidence of such cases was 5.5 per cent of total admissions during the six months.

Other cases went further, in part welcomed their disability and had a mixture of struggle against loss and measurable psychogenic increase in it. Such individuals comprised 2.8 per cent of admissions during the six months.

A final group had primarily psychogenic deafness. Their incidence was 5.7 per cent in the six months. They seemed to have deep desires for isolation and silence; and frequently they had invested hearing with powerful emotion.

The consultation rate steadily increased, until finally the psychiatrist began to function as a member of the Hearing Service. The discovery of mixed and psychogenic cases showed a parallel steady increase. The diagnostic technics of speech reception measurement, with and without masking noise, and the psychogalvanic skin reflex, should be supplemented; and there is need for further study of the problems of hearing in relation to language formation, interpersonal relations, and possibly even certain ear diseases of unknown etiology.




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