> This is observable in late stage dementia patients, it gradually becomes difficult to think and in the final dire stages their sense of self degrades too.
At best, you can be an external observer. You can't truly understand what the person is experiencing.
A common thread I see among people with brain damage is that they don't recognize it. For example, with patients with hemispatial neglect [0], if you ask them to draw a clock, and then only draw the right-hand side of one with the numbers 12 through 6 and they don't draw 7-11, then try to ask them where the 9 is, they might insist it's there. If you ask them to point at the 9, they'll either point to the wrong number or not point at all. And if you tell them they're not pointing or are pointing to the wrong number, they'll insist they're right.
But even with all that knowledge, it's still hard to imagine what that person is actually experiencing.
At best, you can be an external observer. You can't truly understand what the person is experiencing.
A common thread I see among people with brain damage is that they don't recognize it. For example, with patients with hemispatial neglect [0], if you ask them to draw a clock, and then only draw the right-hand side of one with the numbers 12 through 6 and they don't draw 7-11, then try to ask them where the 9 is, they might insist it's there. If you ask them to point at the 9, they'll either point to the wrong number or not point at all. And if you tell them they're not pointing or are pointing to the wrong number, they'll insist they're right.
But even with all that knowledge, it's still hard to imagine what that person is actually experiencing.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemispatial_neglect