Abstract
This is a report of a patient with Wernicke's aphasia and right hemiparesis caused by a cerebral hemorrhage. He was a 42 year old bachelor. He denied his own language disturbance to himself and others, to defend himself against anxiety aroused from the disturbance. Whenever other people pointed out his right hand disabilily and social handicaps, he criticized them and rationalized himself. He needed a speech therapist to make sure of self defense.
Speech therapy included improvement of his language ability, maintenance of the therapeutic relationship by accepting his need for denial, listening to him his talk about his life history and encouraging him to pay attention to the new conditions in his life. After discharge from the hospital, his anxiety was reduced and his behavior adapted to his actualities due to the process of adaptation to the welfare institution. Speech therapy was ended at this time. To assist the subject to become independent in ‘acte de parole’ with aphasia, a speech therapist must be able to understand the psychological mechanism motivating his ‘acte de parole’.
