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A condition called hemispacial neglect, also known as hemiagnosia, is a rare phenomenon in the neurological world, characterized by the inability of those afflicted to process and perceive stimuli on one side of their environment. The most striking feature of the condition is that the victim not only fails to see what is in (usually) her left field of vision, but is also unaware of the fact that the other side of his environment even exists.

There is a cultural correlative to this condition that is remarkably common, affecting almost all academics in our university humanities and social science departments, most politicians and most media commentators. Cultural hemiagnosia presents as a failure to see, or even be aware of, the fact that half the population – the male half – are ever victims of violence by women.

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Intimate partner violence is not sexual assault in most cases. The two phenomena should be kept separate.

The result is that a great deal of social, educational and legislative concern focuses on female victims of domestic violence, with lavish sums of money devoted to counseling, shelters and public service campaigns aimed at sensitizing the public to this shameful social scourge, but virtually zero funds are spent on the same services for male sufferers of the same scourge – without guilt, since male suffering is both visually and cognitively invisible to the hemiagnosiacs creating the policies.