I’ve been reading this New York Times series about anosognosia. I’d never heard of it before, but it’s the condition where people have one sort of problem (originally partial paralysis, but it’s been applied to other disorders) and seem to be completely unaware of it. In the case of hemiplegia (or one-sided paralysis), if you ask the patient to pick up an object with the able hand, they do it immediately, but if you ask them to do it with the immobile hand, they’ll come up with all sorts of reasons to not do it – I’m tired; I don’t really want that; I’m busy. The big question is whether they are really not aware of their disability, or if they are trying to hide it somehow. Consciously or not, they will say anything to maintain the illusion that they are perfectly whole, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Wow. So interesting for so many reasons.
One is the amazing Schrodinger’s cat of human motivations. There’s almost no way that we can tell if an anosognosic is actually blind to their own disability or not. You can’t prove a fact that only lives inside a person’s head. When an anorexic looks at a skeletal frame and can still tell you how fat they are, are they saying that out of their own stubborn belief, or is their own brain fooling them in to a distorted image? Also, can an entire society have anosognosia? Does this explain why our ocean’s are being paralyzed, yet some people seem to be able to maintain complete ecological denial? (Looking at you Fox News.) And on another note, what about all those ghost stories that say that humans see evidence of the supernatural all the time, but ignore it, or just don't see it, because we can't deal with the fact that all that spooky stuff exists. Ghosts don't scare us, the existence of ghosts scares us. Spooky. But I doubt that's what the author was really getting at.
Needless to say, my brain hurts. But in the good way. Every once in awhile it’s good to jump in and look at something that’s too smart for you and see what you can whack out a little understanding on. And the introductory segment on people who aren’t bright enough to realize they aren’t very bright has got me so paranoid that I can’t see straight. How many things am I being a complete bonehead about and don’t even realize it? Am I really a lousy driver and in denial? Oh, mygod! Am I the idiot?
Anyway, if you’re in the mood for a good brainbuster, I can’t recommend the series highly enough. But eat your Wheaties before you try, it’s a mental triathlon. Or maybe that’s just my bonehead talking. Agh! Paranoid!
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/anosognosics-dilemma/
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2 comments:
i think this is a new fancy word for an old concept - Socrates said we know only that we know nothing - or something to that effect - the smarter and more knowledgeable you are, the more you are aware of your limitations and have self-doubt - witness the arrogant 12=3 yrs old who know it all and hav it ALL figured out - oh, it is pointed out to them, but they choose to ignore it - just like anorexics are constantly told how thin they are - the problem is they do not value or trust anyone's opinion but their own
You know, my trail of thought ran straight to anorexics too. But the question is, do they refuse to see, or is not being able to see a protective measure taken by some hidden part of the brain to weirdly protect them from seeing the results of their sickness? Hard to tell. For the most part, anorexics are usually difficult people in one way or another. Could be stubborn lying, or it could be some deep part of the sickness. The brain is a very mysterious thing.
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