PROBLEM OF IMPERCEPTION OF DISEASE AND OF IMPAIRED BODY TERRITORIES WITH ORGANIC LESIONS

Abstract

UNAWARENESS OF DISEASE There is a group of patients affected with cerebral hemiplegia, usually of the left side, who show the strange feature of lack of awareness of their own defect. Not only do such patients tend to behave as though they could move their disabled limbs perfectly, but they deny their paralysis altogether. The phenomenon is observed not rarely if looked for. Its occurrence seems to depend on the mode and rapidity of onset of the defect rather than on its extent and severity. The more sudden the onset, the more likely is the symptom to occur. The condition is usually transient, but may sometimes persist for a longer or shorter period, even until death. The phenomenon of nonperception of disease has also been observed in patients with cortical blindness from bilateral lesion of the occipital lobe. Besides, it has been noted in persons with visual field defects from