Ink of the Mind: A Graphological Glimpse into Parveen Babi's Schizophrenia

Parveen Babi (4 April 1952 – 20 January 2005) was an Indian actress and model who rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s. Known for her glamorous roles, and flamboyant roles she worked in about 50 Hindi films over nearly 10 years. In the later years of her life, she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, leading to periods of isolation and public incidents that drew media attention. In this article, we take a look at her background and some of the incidents from her life that reveal her mental health vulnerabilities before moving to the analysis of her signature to find cues of her mental health condition.

Born to her parents after 14 years of marriage, she was an only child. When she was just seven years old, her father passed away from cancer. However, her mother died quite later in 2001. She pursued higher education at St. Xavier's College, Ahmedabad, earning degrees in English and Psychology. Her modeling career began in 1971, leading to her film debut in 1973 with Charitra and then she quickly became one of Bollywood’s most glamorous adn highest-paid actresses.

Despite her professional success, Babi's personal life was marked by challenges. She remained unmarried, with notable relationships including those with actors Danny Denzongpa, Kabir Bedi and Mahesh Bhatt.

Here is an account of some of her stories revealing her mental health vulnerabilities:

Mahesh Bhatt shared that Parveen Babi experienced her first major panic episode in 1969, during a period of communal unrest. At the time, she was hidden under a mattress and relocated to her guardian’s home out of fear for her safety, including the threat of sexual violence.

A decade later, in 1979, after filming for the movie Shaan, Bhatt, her mother Jamal, and her secretary Ved Sharma found Babi in a deeply distressed state—sitting in a corner of her room clutching a knife. She claimed that actor Amitabh Bachchan was trying to kill her and that her room had been bugged. Over the following days, she displayed signs of severe paranoia, believing that many people, including Bhatt himself, were conspiring against her.

On July 30, 1983, Babi abruptly left India and embarked on a spiritual journey with philosopher U. G. Krishnamurti and his associate Valentine. During this time, she lived in cities such as Los Angeles, Houston, and in parts of Switzerland. She eventually returned to Bombay in November 1989. It was widely speculated that she had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, though Babi denied this, claiming instead that it was a smear campaign by the film industry and media to discredit her and hide their own alleged wrongdoings. She distanced herself from most friends and family, becoming increasingly isolated.

On April 7, 1984, she was detained at New York’s JFK Airport after failing to present identification. Authorities placed her in a general psychiatric ward with about 30 other patients. When U. G. Krishnamurti visited, he observed her conversing calmly and cheerfully with the Indian Consul General, as if the incident had not occurred.

In a 1989 magazine interview, Babi made startling accusations, alleging that Amitabh Bachchan was part of a global criminal network and was trying to kill her. She claimed that she had been abducted and surgically implanted with a transmitter or bug behind her ear—a claim she supported with a photograph showing a scar near that area.

In 2002, she submitted a formal complaint alleging that several powerful figures—including Amitabh Bachchan, Bill Clinton, Prince Charles, Al Gore, the U.S. and British governments, the CIA, CBI, Mossad, and the BJP—were part of a plot to assassinate her. The court dismissed the petition due to a lack of evidence.

That same year, Babi made headlines again when she filed an affidavit related to the 1993 Bombay serial bombings, claiming she had evidence implicating actor Sanjay Dutt. However, she failed to appear in court, citing fear for her life. In the final years of her life, Babi grew increasingly vigilant, recording all phone conversations and openly informing callers that they were being monitored.

Let’s analyze her mental make-up from her signature:

Emil Kraepelin (1856–1926), in his seminal work Dementia Praecox and Paraphrenia, observed that schizophrenia could at times be detected through a person’s handwriting. He noted specific features such as overly elaborate capital letters, decorative embellishments on individual characters, inconsistent use of diacritical marks like umlauts and tittles, slanted and narrow lettering, frequent strike-throughs, and inappropriate underlining. Often, the handwriting appeared cramped and chaotic, with writing spilling into every available space on the page. Signs of disorganized thought processes included jumbled phrases known as word salad (e.g., "wetness smooth dancing sheep"), made-up words (neologisms like "tarnharn"), sound-based associations (e.g., "Here he comes with a cat catch, a bat hatch, and a rat match"), and unusual word substitutions such as calling a clock a "time vessel."

In Parveen Babi’s signature, the prominently enlarged capital letters ‘P’ and ‘B’ immediately draw attention. A particularly notable feature is the enclosed oval of the letter ‘P,’ which contains the subsequent letters of her first name—suggesting a pronounced psychological need for protection, potentially rooted in a deep-seated fear of harm.

Additionally, the letter ‘a’ in the surname ‘Babi’ is encircled, further reinforcing this symbolic pattern of self-containment and security-seeking. Collectively, these elements reflect emotional vulnerability, with the exaggerated emphasis on enclosure indicating a heightened sense of insecurity, possibly aligned with underlying psychological distress.

Her memory continues to shine as a symbol of elegance and artistic brilliance, intertwined with the silent struggles of mental health in the spotlight.