DR. JOHN'S CASE NOTES : SCOTOMA PECULIARIS

All bridge players no matter what their level of ability or ranking suffer from this unusual condition. Scotoma perculiaris is a psychological disorder where the sufferer fails to see something that is so glaringly obvious to others. This inability to recognise and comprehend items of information relative to a subject area leads to either an imperfection , or partial absence, of insight.

Scotoma is the Greek word for darkness, and when darkness blots out a piece of the bigger picture within a player's mind, confusion and guesswork take over. This form of psychological scotoma is so common in bridge players, they inevitably cock up the play of a hand, simply because of a missing piece of vital information. It may be an earlier bid or perhaps a telling discard. This flaw in information storage and retrieval inevitably impairs the inner field of vision to such an extent that players fail to make the right decisions. In essence, this disability creates in their mind blind spots, which of course severely damages their ability to play perfect bridge.

Moreover, these blind spots are usually exacerbated by psychological factors such as fear of failure, fear of reprimand, superstition, panic, anxiety and stress. The consequence of any one of these factors, is that the victim's blind spots become larger than ever, causing him/her to not register key bits of information. Ironically, victims always fail to spot which spot cards have been played, or which spot cards are still outstanding.

Some psychoanalysts claim that scotoma perculiaris is nothing more than a lapse or loss of concentration. But they are wrong. A blind spot can occur even when a player's mind is active and working overtime, but any attempt to build up a complete picture of the hand is, unfortunately, blighted by these unfortunate pockets of darkness. Loss of concentration on the other hand is when player's mind succumbs to extreme tiredness or fatigue. This causes a temporary or complete shutdown, a total mind switch-off , where everything for a second or two goes blank ( or blacks out) .

During a scotoma perculiaris episode, a victim's senses a blip in his/her thought process. These blips are like neurological switches being turned off denying access to certain information stores. Under pressure to make decisions at the table, guesses have to to made as to what information might be stored behind these closed doors. Sadly, shooting around in the dark only results in unbelievable misses, and fatal mistakes.

Once their partners witness these aberrations, they suddenly become lost for words, a condition which in itself is an early symptom of this disorder. Sadly, many victims try desperately to explain their failings as " senior moments ", but the reality of course is that they have a permanent psychological handicap.

Indeed, my worst affected clients incur so many blind spots they see very little of the bigger picture. As they attempt to bid and play the hand, they display no evidence of any short term memory, making random choices and selections as they go along. Yet bizarrely this is what makes bridge so fascinating, because there will be occasions when "guessing blind " appears to work.