Alien Hand Syndrome: The Hand that has a Mind of Its Own

When I was young, I used to get scared after watching horror movies with those icky stuff. One of the things that I usually see in those scary movies are mind control and hypnosis stuff that I usually see around. Occasionally I would run into videos where the victim loses control of his hand and tries to hurt or kill himself.

But I learned today that this is a fact and not all people know this condition. The alien hand syndrome is a rare disease and there are actual cases recorded in medical history. Sufferers think that their hand is not their own, and does strange (and embarrassing things too) on their bodies.

Alien Hand Syndrome video

This woman thinks that her hand is not hers – the poor woman thinks somebody is pulling her hair – and later on she realizes that it was her hand that made the unwanted involuntary movement. Her right hand keeps on controlling the involuntary movements of her left hand. This YouTube video below clearly shows her condition.

Since this condition is too rare, there was no known effective treatment for this alien hand syndrome condition yet. Surprisingly, this woman recovered – she did not fully recovered from the condition, but at least she could do things on her own, like driving around town.

Read more about alien hand syndrome

• The Psychologist by neuropsychologist Sergio Della Sala (view or download the PDF)
• Involuntary Hand Levitation Associated with Parietal Damage (case studies)
• Wikipedia article on alien hand syndrome

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