Not surprisingly, there are many words associated with the brain, or mind, and what it does. They range from such common words as know, think and learn to exciting and sometimes scary words like hope, dream and hallucinate. Some people even associate the concepts of soul and spirit with the mind.
I've tentatively divided this topic into several sections: Introduction (the page you're reading now), Thought, Emotions, Personality, Dream States, Mental Health and Miscellaneous. Thought focuses on words like think, learn and understand. Emotions include happiness, sadness, etc. Personality tackles such words/signs as nice, confident and stubborn. Dream States focuses on words like dream, hallucinate and extrasensory perception. Mental Health constitutes a section on my Health page. (I placed Dream States and Mental Health on this page.)
Miscellaneous simply features mind words/signs that I haven't yet categorized. Obviously, there will be some overlap between these sections.
As the table below indicates, the same sign (a very easy one) is used to indicate the words brain, mind and mental, and that sign is the same on three online ASL dictionaries.
| brain | AP | SS | |||
| mind | AP | SS | HS | ||
| mental | AP | SS | |||
| conscious | AP | HS | |||
| conscience | AP | ||||
| soul | AP | SS | HS | AS | |
| AP | SS | ||||
| spirit | AP | SS | HS | AS | |
| SS |
I included the words conscious and conscience in this table. Note that ASL Pro and HandSpeak use different signs for conscious, though both are similar to the sign for brain/mind.
The sign for soul (synonymous with spirit and ghost) is a little more difficult and slightly more variable. ASL Pro, Signing Savvy and Handspeak each feature two signs for both soul and spirit. However, I have a difficult time telling them apart, aside from ASL Pro's second sign for soul, marked in red in the table.
Next, let's focus on ten things everyone with a mind has, should have or would like to have. The sign for knowledge appears to be identical to that for brain/mind, except that one taps the forehead with multiple fingers rather than the index finger alone.
| Signed on the Head | |||||
| knowledge | SS | MT | |||
| intellect | AP | ||||
| common sense | SS | HS | AS | ||
| logic | AP | SS | |||
| Signed on the Neck | |||||
| curiosity | SS | ||||
| curious | AP | SS | HS | MT | |
| Signed on the Body | |||||
| personality | AP | SS | |||
| instinct | AP | ||||
| intuition | HS | ||||
Intellect is the most confusing of the signs focused on the head, in my opinion, but it really isn't that hard. Wit appears to be identical or similar to the sign for funny. Common sense is an initialized sign and is pretty easy to remember. ASL Pro and Signing Savvy show similar yet distinct signs for logic.
Curiosity is an odd sign and is identical to the sign for curious.
ASL Pro and Signing Savvy show identical signs for personality. If I'm not mistaken, morale utilizes the same sign one would use when asking "How are you?" except that you wouldn't point at another person. As I suspected, the signs for instinct and intuition appear to be the same. They are signed lower on the body.
Dream State
The mind ia a powerful thing. It can be both scary and inspirational. Let's focus on some of the more amazing mental phenomena.
ASL Pro and Signing Savvy both show signers using the I hand to say imagine. However, SS' merely uses the same one-handed sign used to represent idea, whereas ASL Pro uses a more complicated two-handed gesture. SS uses that same two-handed gesture for the word imagination, while MT uses a one-handed sign similar to that used for idea.
| imagine | AP | SS | |||
| imagination | SS | MT | |||
| imagine that | SS | ||||
| dream | AP | SS | HS | AS | MT |
| daydream | SS | HS | |||
| nightmare | AP | MT | |||
| fantasy | AP | ||||
| hallucinate | AP | ||||
| hallucination | AP | ||||
| psychedelic | AP | ||||
| ESP | HS |
Dream and daydream are much less confusing. However, HandSpeak illustrates two versions of dream, one of which shows the signer flicking the index finger just once, rather than repeatedly. Nightmare apparently combines the signs bad and dream. The sign for dream can also be used to say fantasy, according to ASL Pro.
Hallucinate and hallucination each appear to combine the sign for dream with another sign. I believe the sign for hallucinate = confused + dream, while hallucination = mind + confused.
Handspeak offers a sign for extrasensory perception, which could also be finger-spelled ESP.
Mental Health
| psychology | AP | SS | |||
| psychologist | AP | SS | |||
| psychiatry | AP | SS | |||
| psychiatrist | AP | SS | |||
| SS | |||||
| conscious | AP | HS | |||
| brain damage | AP | ||||
| brainwash | HS | ||||
| insane | SS | MT | |||
| sane | SS | ||||
| rational | SS | ||||
| lunatic | SS | ||||
| mental hygiene | AP | ||||
| mentally retarded | SS | ||||
| retarded | SS | ||||
| paranoid | AP | ||||
| schizophrenic | AP | HS |
ASL Pro and Signing Savvy use the same sign for psychology, which is remarkably simple. Once you learn it, you can easily sign psychologist. However, the two sites part company on psychiatry and psychiatrist.
We've already seen the sign for conscious in the introduction to this topic. One sign that's familiar even to many people who don't know sign language is lunatic. The same sign is used to say crazy, daft, etc.
The other signs pretty much speak for themselves. HandSpeak combines the signs for brain and wash to make brainwash. The two signs for insane appear to be identical or very similar. Mentally retarded and retarded are the same. ASL Pro finger-spells schizophrenic.
Consience - Spelled conciencia or consciencia
Daydream = fantasear or fantasía
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