To navigate the slippage in her mind, she turns to case studies of brain damage - a patient who "ceases to recognise faces, including her own," and a sufferer of
asomatognosia, unable to detect the physical boundaries of her body while "her thoughts continued, anchored to nothing."
So-called "alien hand syndrome," or
asomatognosia, is a widely recognized example of xenomelia, and is associated with medial frontal lobe damage.
Phenomenological overlaps with
asomatognosia suggest that depersonalization might result from parietal mechanisms that impair the experience of body ownership and agency [17].
En particular, L'hermitte hizo hincapie en la similitud entre despersonalizacion y
asomatognosia y acuno la expresion
asomatognosia total para referirse a la despersonalizacion (5).
La hipotesis cobra fuerza cuando, anos despues, el autor atiende a un paciente con
asomatognosia (7) que experimentaba una perdida de la sensacion del cuerpo en gran parte de este, sin por ello perder la conciencia (aunque su estado mental no era completamente normal).