Patients talking about stroke hemiplegia. A discursive analysis

Semi directive interviews with hemiplegic, para- or quadriplegic patients, and patients with bone traumatisms were performed. A discursive analysis was devoted to the form of phrases and locutions used by the patients when describing their illness and paralysed or injured limbs, and to the way they refer to themselves as ill people and they combine these grammatical subjects to differents kinds of verbs. The results, interpreted in relation to psychoanalytic lacanian concepts of Ego images, suggest that the imaginary identity of paralyzed and especially hemiplegic patients is disturbed.