Visual Phenomenology in Recently Blind Adults

A psychosocial investigation of 66 recently blind adults revealed that depressive reactions were prominent in a generally abating course. Visual residua and behaviors irrelevant to blindness occurred in all subjects. They are described and related to maladaptive coping as follows: visual experiences waking and sleeping (85 percent of the sample); recurrent affective responses to dreaming and waking events, and visual residua in cognitive and motor behavior (100 percent); and maalaptive coping and diminished awareness of blindness (95 percent).