Anosognosia

Excerpt

Anosognosia is a neuropsychiatric condition in which one is in denial--unconsciously--and unaware of an apparent disability or deficit. The French neurologist, Joseph Babinski, first described anosognosia when highlighting the obliviousness of those afflicted with left hemiplegia, in 1914. Anosognosia can manifest transdiagnostically as it is extant in both psychiatric and neurologic disorders. Most often, it precipitates in the setting of structural damage--from ischemic strokes--to the right parietal cortex. It also has utility as a psychiatric construct used to describe a patient's lack of insight.