[Total aphasia and speech therapy: a case history (author's transl)]

The medical profession and therapists continue to believe that total aphasia is untreable. A case report is used to demonstrate the diagnostic features of aphasia and describe the course of the impairment from the complete loss of speech, via the learning of highly automated expressions to the aquisition of single words which the patient uses independently in the different contexts. This development involves all language functions equally. The therapy is based on conventional methods, deblocking stategies, speech therapeutic talks - principal item of the treatment - and dialogue exercises carried out under normal conditions. The problems relating to deblocking methods are discussed. A description is made of the methods which have been developed from a combined audiovisual, tactile and writing motoric speech activation programme. The article presents the linguistic signs of the syndrome in an advanced stage and demonstrates the development of the thinking structure and the psychic problems with the help of the tree drawings.