ABSTRACT
Imagine that you are visiting someone in hospital and that you are attempting to hold a conversation. The patient …
gives the impression of a person in complete possession of his faculties; he reasons about everything perfectly well, draws correct deductions from given premises, makes witty remarks, plays chess or a game of cards, in a word, comports himself as a mentally sound person. Only after a long conversation with the patient, [you] may note that at times he utterly confuses events and that he remembers absolutely nothing of what goes on around him: he does not remember whether he had his dinner, whether he was out of bed. On occasion the patient forgets what happened to him just an instant ago: you came in, conversed with him, and stepped out for one minute; then you come in again and the patient has absolutely no recollection that you had already been with him. [The patient] may read the same page over and over again sometimes for hours, because [he is] absolutely unable to remember what [he has] read. In conversation [he] may repeat the same thing 20 times, remaining wholly unaware that [he] is repeating the same thing.
