English is not my first language, therefore my vocabulary isn't so fabulous.
I am describing the later stages of Alzheimer disease, and I am including some of the main key points.
For this part also, I am stuck. The phrase I am working on goes like so:
They lose the ability to memorize. To understand. To [verb for awareness of own existence]
I am mainly looking for just one verb that fits this requirement – in other words, one verb that can change: 'the ability to know that they exist' as this one sounds too tacky.
Best Answer
There are no words I'm aware of that fit the bill precisely, but here are a few suggestions:
If these don't satisfy you you can sort of 'cheat' by just plopping the word 'self' in front of a given word (like 'self-reflect' or 'self-study'). Although it isn't technically 'proper', your reader will surely understand what you're trying to say, and that's really the goal of language anyway. If you can make it sound as though it should be a word, and if it has a clear meaning, feel free to use it.