Personality factors in jargon aphasia.

The personality background of 20 patients with jargon aphasia was compared to that of a standard aphasia group with particular reference to features of the so called anosognosic personality; denial or marked overt fear of illness and strong work orientation. Such attitudes toward illness were found in 19 of 20 jargon subjects, and seven of the comparison group. Nineteen of the jargon patients and eleven of the non-jargon asphasics were described as highly work oriented. The premorbid personality was also significantly related to the type of denial of the speech deficit, and to related aspects of behavior. Patients with strong premorbid denial explicitly and completely denied their asphasic deficits, and were affable, bland or unconcerned. Patients with a history of overt fear of illness had implicit or mixed forms of denial, and showed disturbed, agitated, paranoid and often psychotic behavior. The type of denial is thus related not only to premorbid personality, but to observable behavior in hospital. The observations are regarded as providing additional evidence for the view that jargon may be regarded as "anosognosic aphasia," and represents not only a linguistic deficit, but an adaptation to the deficit.