Aphasic victim as investigator
D. Wender
Classics Department, Wheaton College, Norton, Mass.
The author (a classics professor) suffered a cerebrovascular accident,
resulting in aphasia. In order to learn whether speech therapy helps
aphasic patients to recover, the patient worked on Greek vocabulary and
grammar and ignored Latin. (Both languages were equally well-known before
the accident; skills in both languages had been totally lost afterward.)
This case demonstrates the value of retraining an aphasic. After three
years, testing demonstrated a professorial level of the Greek language, but
Latin was essentially still missing.
