People who are blind from birth never develop schizophrenia—what this tells us about the psychiatric condition

MedicalXpress | ماي 02, 2026

In 1950, two researchers noticed something that didn't quite add up. Hector Chevigny, a writer who had lost his sight in adulthood, and psychologist Sydell Braverman were studying the psychological lives of blind people when they stumbled upon an intriguing pattern: schizophrenia, a serious mental illness affecting people across virtually every known society, appeared to be entirely absent in people who had been blind from birth.