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Disorientation for Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

O. L. Zangwill*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge

Extract

It has often been noticed that patients in amnesic states are prone to underestimate their age. In cases of Korsakov's psychosis this under-estimation may be very gross, and its extent appears to be determined, in part at least, by the duration of retrograde amnesia (Meggendorfer, 1928). A similar, if less extreme, under-estimation of age may also occur in the early stages of recovery after head-injury. In a recent study Weinstein and Kahn (1951) refer to this phenomenon as disorientation for age and adduce some striking examples. Thus one of their patients, a woman of over 70, insisted that she was 38. These authors do not, however, attempt a systematic analysis of this facet of disorientation.

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1953 

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References

Hécaen, H., and Ajuriaguerra, J. de, Méconnaissances et Hallucinations Corporelles, 1952. Paris: Masson.Google Scholar
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