these are called agnosias. visual agnosia, for example, can see an object quite well, but can't name it. they don't understand what it is used for. and the whole idea of agnosia is a fascinating history. amazingly enough, the term was coined by sigmund freud. we think of sigmund freud as the founde of pshoanalysis and the interpretation of dreams, sort of the founding text of that. that was 1900. but for about 15 years before that he was a great neuroan at mist and fine clinical neurologist and in 1891 he krot a classic text on aphasia, disorders of langge. and in it he coined the terming athosia. by that he meant that people in a variety of spheres have difficulty knowing exactly what the object is. it's a deficiency in knowledge. so for example, a person with visual agnosia might look at this cup, see that it is ite, see that it's round, see that it sits on something fl but would not realize this was a cup and you use it for drinking. this amazing insight that you can have a selective defect in knowledge agno