Aphasia in an artist: A disorder of symbolic processing

Abstract

This paper presents a study of a prominent Polish painter who suffered from a left brain stroke resulting in hemiparesis and aphasia. His drawing abilities were preserved on the performance level but he was not able to create the highly symbolic pictures he used to paint before the stroke. A neuropsychological examination, using Luria's approach, revealed a kinetic aphasia with some features of the frontal syndrome. The patient exhibited difficulties with reproducing and developing narratives, with understanding a moral of the story as well as with connecting components of a picture into a sensible whole. He was also unable to produce new associations of a word giving a series of its derivations instead. The patient was given appropriate treatment. Samples of pictures produced before and during the illness as well as after ‘Symbolic Thought Therapy’ reflect changes occuring in his cognitive abilities. The patient's problems are discussed against a background of differences in the mode of information processing by the left and right hemispheres taking into consideration the reports of artistic productions following brain lesions. It is also suggested that apart from the left-right dichotomy we should take into account the differences in functioning of the anterior and posterior brain areas.