Self-concept and brain damage.

Two groups of right-handed subjects suffering from cerebral lesions in either the left hemisphere or the right hemisphere were tested on the following two dimensions of their self-concept: (1) consistency of self-report, mainly the ability not to be trapped into making contradictory responses to statements concerning various aspects of their self-representation, and (2) differentiation width, which refers to the ability to discriminate adequacy of self-concept descriptions. The results suggested, quite significantly, that both consistency and discrimination width were more adversely affected by right-hemisphere injury, whatever the precise location of lesions in the right hemisphere, than they were by left-hemisphere damage. We propose this as a possible illustration of the use of psychological constructs to interpret anatomo-clinical data.