Awareness of Deficit After Brain Injury

By George P. Prigatano

This volume provides, for the first time, multidisciplinary perspectives on the problem of awareness of deficits following brain injury. Such deficits may involve perception, attention, memory, language, or motor functions, and they can seriously disrupt an individual's ability to function. However, some brain-damaged patients are entirely unaware of the existence or severity of their deficits, even when they are easily noticed by others. In addressing these topics, contributors cover the entire range of neuropsychological syndromes in which problems with awareness of deficit are observed: hemiplegia and hemianopia, amnesia, aphasia, traumatic head injury, dementia, and others. On the clinical side, leading researchers delineate the implications of awareness of deficits for rehabilitation and patient management, and the role of defense mechanisms such as denial. Theoretical discussions focus on the importance of awareness disturbances for better understanding such cognitive processes as attention, consciousness, and monitoring.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195059417
• ISBN13: 9780195059410
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

An amazing book detailing a difficult phenomenon

The book explains a condition called anosognosia which brain injured individuals may experience. As the title explains, anosognosia basically describes an unawareness of deficits. Although much has been written about brain injuries, this extremely important facet of the recovery process is rarely addressed. I am brain injured myself and learned more about my own condition from this book than I have learned in all the other seventeen post-morbid years put together. It is written in highly technical language, more for professionals, I'd guess, than the lay person. All the same, I (a lay person) found it great reading and had no trouble understanding its content.