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.

1. Introduction, George P. Prigatano and Daniel L. Schacter 2. Anosognosia Related to Hemiplegia and Hemianopia, Edoardo Bisiach and Guiliano Geminiani 3. Anosognosia of Linguistic Deficits in Patients with Neurological Deficits, Alan B. Rubens 4. Anosognosia: Possible Neuropsychological Mechanisms, Kenneth M. Heilman 5. Disturbance of Self-Awareness After Frontal System Damage, Donald T. Stuss 6. Unawareness of Deficits in Dementia and Schizophrenia, Susan M. McGlynn and Alfred W. Kaszniak 7. Disturbances of Self-Awareness of Deficit After Traumatic Brain Injury, George P. Prigatano 8. Unawareness of Deficit and Unawareness of Knowledge in Patients with Memory Disorders, Daniel L. Schacter 9. Three Possible Mechanisms of Unawareness of Deficit, Elkhonon Goldberg and William B. Barr 10. Reality Monitoring: Evidence from Confabulation in Organic Brain Disease Patients, Marcia K. Johnson 11. Anosognosia, Consciousness, and the Self, John F. Kihlstrom and Betsy A. Tobias 12. The Role of Psychological Factors in Disordered Awareness, Lisa Lewis 13. Anosognosia and Denial of Illness, Edwin A. Weinstein 14. Forms of Unawareness, Daniel L. Schacter and George P. Prigatano

"Excellent."--Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease