Mirror Writing

Mirror writing, writing not from left to right, as is normal for most European peoples, but from right to left, so that the result is a mirror image of normal writing. It occurs (as a rare symptom) in agraphia. Little is known about the pathogenesis of mirror writing. Liepmann indicated that every person is able to write in a mirror-like manner more easily with the left hand than with the right. Dejerine designates mirror writing as the "normal instinctive method of writing with the left hand." Pfeiffer, who conducted experiments on illiterates, found that when taught to write several simple words with the right hand, they place the pen at the right edge of the paper when asked to write with the left hand and begin writing from right to left, i.e., in mirror fashion. When subsequently they were completely forbidden to write with the right hand and they practiced writing with the left hand in the normal direction for some time, it turned out that the handwriting of the right hand had markedly deteriorated. This experiment leads to the conclusion that during exercise in writing with one hand, there is latent exercise of the other in the mirror direction, and at the same time, a delay develops in it for handwriting in the same direction.