The dangers of a great vocabulary

Everyone I know is bored rigid with my favorite word, ANOSOGNOSIA. I bring anosognosia up every opportunity I get, trying to sneak anosognosia into each conversation, spread the use of the term anosognosia as widely as I can, giving pronounciation lessons on "ano-sog-NO-sia" as I go and making anosognosia a centerpiece of my belief that one cannot understand eating disorders without understanding anosognosia.

But, I'm sorry. Because my obsession has obviously spread to my dear friends with unexpected perils:

"MY CHILD got some marks deducted in her RE exam because instead of writing that someone was agnostic, she wrote that they were anosognostic.  Question: do I ask for a remark and explain to the RE teacher that it was not a spelling mistake?"

Oh, dear. I'm a bad influence on children! Can I plead anosognosia of my obsession?

**Anosognosia /ano·sog·no·sia/ (an-o″so-no´zhah) is a condition in which a person who suffers disability seems unaware of the existence of his or her disability. Unlike denial, which is a defense mechanism, anosognosia is rooted in physiology (for example, damage to the frontal or parietal lobe due to illness and disease). This may include unawareness of quite dramatic impairments, such as blindness or paralysis. It was first named by the neurologist Joseph Babinski in 1914,[1] although relatively little has been discovered about the cause of the condition since its initial identification. The word comes from the Greek words "nosos" disease and "gnosis" knowledge (an- / a- is a negative prefix).

Comments

  1. when I first introduced the word to a CofE vicar friend she read it as "agnostiphobia" and wondered that there could be a set of people who were actually AFRAID of agnostics.

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  2. Just read a good article on Anoso...whatever. It is in relation to ADHD and is called the Biology of Denial by Dr. Amador.

    www.xavieramador.com/files/august_08_biology_of_denial.pdf

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  3. agnostiphobia - I love it!

    and anne, amazing link. very useful. I love Amador!

    ReplyDelete

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