An early detailed description of aphasia in a deaf-mute: Anton leischner's “die ‘aphasie’ der taubstummen” (1943)

Abstract

(abbreviated from Leischner's summary)

Leischner analysed a congenitally deaf-mute trilingual (sign language, Czech and German) patient who suffered from asymbolia for sign language and aphasia following an infarction in the lower left parietal (and superior temporal) lobe. On the basis of his observations, Leischner proposed a superordinate category of asymbolia to include aphasia and other disorders of symbol use. Leischner distinguished a ‘main symbolia’, the individual most adequate means of expression, from ‘secondary symbolias’, which are subordinate. In his patient, parasymbolias are described in the systems of oral, written and sign language. Contaminations between Czech and German words in written productions were observed for the first time and termed ‘polyglot paragraphia’. The left interior parietal lobe is viewed as containing a regulatory centre for symbolic expression.