Synonyms
Self-awareness
Definition
Anosognosia is a disorder characterized by denial of illness or lack of awareness of disability.
Historical Background
In the clinic, it is very common to see patients who suffer with a neurological disease, such as stroke, but who appear to deny illness or be unaware of their disabilities. Seneca, the Stoic philosopher, noted this about 2000 years ago, but the first modern description of a patient with unawareness-denial was by von Monakow (1885). Although there were other investigators who wrote about this striking disorder, it was Babinski (1914), who coined the term anosognosia. This word comes from three roots: a = without, noso = disease, and gnosis = knowledge. In addition to describing patients who were unaware of their illness or disability, Babinski described other patients who appeared to be aware but remained unconcerned. He called this disorder, anosodiaphoria.
There are many forms of anosognosia and these forms are related to the nature...
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von Monakow, C. (1885). Experimentelle und pathologisch-anatomische Untersuchungen über die Beziehungen der sogenannten Sehphäre zu den infrakorticalen Opticuscentren und zum N. opticus. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 16, 151–199.
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Heilman, K.M. (2018). Anosognosia. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1264
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1264
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