Cognitive Features of Self-Concept of Patients with Aphasia

This study is devoted to the investigation of the Self-concept features of patients with aphasia. The subject of the study is the cognitive aspect of the Self-concept as a way for patients with aphasia to understand themselves. The paper presents a theoretical review and analysis of approaches to the study of the Self-concept, aphasia, and the connections of thinking and speech. Based on the analysis, it was assumed that the integrity of the Self-concept cognitive aspect will be violated in aphasia by the type of reduction in the level of generalization. To test this assumption, the empirical study was conducted. It included patients with aphasia (sensory and efferent motor), patients with brain damage, without aphasia, and healthy respondents without neurological and psychiatric diseases. The Kuhn and McPartland test "Who am I?" was used to investigate, what people know about themselves. Then they were asked to classify their statements. The basis of this classification was evaluated based on its generality. According to the results of the study, it was revealed that patients with aphasia have significantly more specific situational judgments and generalizations on an unclear basis, than patients in comparison groups have. This may indicate that patients with aphasia connect ideas about themselves not on a general basis, but intuitively or on the basis of specific life circumstances and situations.