scotoma

Noun

scotoma (plural scotomas or scotomata)

1. An area of impaired or lost vision within a visual field otherwise in a good (or at least healthy) state.
   • Malcolm’s vision was now almost totally occupied by the shimmering dazzle of the scotoma.2019, Philip Pullman, The Secret Commonwealth, David Fickling Books (2020), page 373

   Synonyms:

   blind spot

2. (figuratively) A weakness of the mind's perception, cognition, or world view, causing it to ignore some aspects of reality.
   • intellectual scotoma
   • The intellectual foundations for the scientific revolution in medicine were laid down in the second half of the nineteenth century, but therapeutic applications did not reach the bedside until the mid-1940s (L. Eisenberg 1988). The profession I entered cloaked itself in the apparel of science, but...1996, Leon Eisenberg, “Medicine and the Idea of Progress”, in Leo Marx and Bruce Mazlish, editors, Progress: Fact or Illusion?, University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 50

   Synonyms:

   blind spot