Citation

Johnstone B, Kvandal A, Winslow R, Kilgore J, Guerra M. Brain Inj. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Fort Belvoir Intrepid Spirit Center, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/02699052.2020.1717622

PMID

31977238

Abstract

There is increased recognition that the brain processes a "sense of self" (best understood as a sense of "mineness") in the right hemisphere association area and which can be distorted due to neurologic injury. Although there are numerous descriptions of types of disorders of the self (e.g., asomatognosia, anosognosia, mirror misidentification disorder, Capgras syndrome, schizophrenia), there are few descriptions of the subjective experiences of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) who experience a reduced sense of self. This article presents a longitudinal case study of a woman in her early 40s with a primarily right hemisphere TBI and disorder of the self who had difficulties relating her experiences from the perspective of the self. Subjective interviews, neuropsychological test scores, and objective personality testing illustrate how she reported her experiences of a diminished sense of self, and how this sense of self improved over the normal course of recovery following the TBI. This case demonstrates clinically relevant information regarding how individuals with a reduced "sense of self" (i.e., "mineness") associated with a right hemisphere TBI may report their subjective experiences and perform on objective testing.

Language: en

Keywords

Traumatic brain injury; disorder of the self; right hemisphere parietal lobe; sense of self