The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales
THE INSPIRATION FOR THE NBC SERIES BRILLIANT MINDS • In his most extraordinary book, the bestselling author of Awakenings and "poet laureate of medicine” (The New York Times) recounts the case histories of patients inhabiting the compelling world of neurological disorders, from those who are no longer able to recognize common objects to those who gain extraordinary new skills.
“Oliver Sacks has become the world's best-known neurologist. His case studies of broken minds offer brilliant insight into the mysteries of consciousness.”—The Guardian
Featuring a new preface, Oliver Sacks’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with perceptual and intellectual disorders: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; whose limbs seem alien to them; who lack some skills yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents.
In Dr. Sacks’s splendid and sympathetic telling, his patients are deeply human and his tales are studies of struggles against incredible adversity. A great healer, Sacks never loses sight of medicine’s ultimate responsibility: “the suffering, afflicted, fighting human subject.”
“Oliver Sacks has become the world's best-known neurologist. His case studies of broken minds offer brilliant insight into the mysteries of consciousness.”—The Guardian
Featuring a new preface, Oliver Sacks’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with perceptual and intellectual disorders: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; whose limbs seem alien to them; who lack some skills yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents.
In Dr. Sacks’s splendid and sympathetic telling, his patients are deeply human and his tales are studies of struggles against incredible adversity. A great healer, Sacks never loses sight of medicine’s ultimate responsibility: “the suffering, afflicted, fighting human subject.”
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Community Reviews
My Rating: 3.5*
My Overview of Book Content:
The book describes a series of clinical cases encountered by its author â a neurosurgeon. Some of the cases are told briefly while others are described in much more detail. The 24 cases are broken into four sections: "Losses" (e.g. inability to recognize, to remember, etc.), "Excesses" (e.g. Tourettes with its excess energy and other effects), "Transports" (e.g. vividly hearing music from times past) and "The World of the Simple" (e.g. low IQ, including some autistic patients).
My Review:
The books starts off describing notably unusual conditions that are seemingly included for their circus-freak properties (like the one cited in the bookâs title). As the book moves along, the author describes conditions that are more commonly known including a few cases showing distinct situational advantages the condition gives to a patient. Maybe his case selections are the more typical conditions that a neurosurgeon encounters (and they exclude mental afflictions that are strictly treated by psychiatrist) because I was unclear on the authorâs reason to select these conditions. There were aspects that I liked about the book include some of the case descriptions and the authorâs genuine sympathy for some patients along with his suggestions how society could/should be more sympathetic to accommodating those people. A few things that I disliked about the book included the authorâs urge to show off (I did this interesting early work), his use of unexplained medical terms and his frequent tendency to make the same point using slightly different words three, four and five times. Some tighter editing would have definitely improved the book.
My Overview of Book Content:
The book describes a series of clinical cases encountered by its author â a neurosurgeon. Some of the cases are told briefly while others are described in much more detail. The 24 cases are broken into four sections: "Losses" (e.g. inability to recognize, to remember, etc.), "Excesses" (e.g. Tourettes with its excess energy and other effects), "Transports" (e.g. vividly hearing music from times past) and "The World of the Simple" (e.g. low IQ, including some autistic patients).
My Review:
The books starts off describing notably unusual conditions that are seemingly included for their circus-freak properties (like the one cited in the bookâs title). As the book moves along, the author describes conditions that are more commonly known including a few cases showing distinct situational advantages the condition gives to a patient. Maybe his case selections are the more typical conditions that a neurosurgeon encounters (and they exclude mental afflictions that are strictly treated by psychiatrist) because I was unclear on the authorâs reason to select these conditions. There were aspects that I liked about the book include some of the case descriptions and the authorâs genuine sympathy for some patients along with his suggestions how society could/should be more sympathetic to accommodating those people. A few things that I disliked about the book included the authorâs urge to show off (I did this interesting early work), his use of unexplained medical terms and his frequent tendency to make the same point using slightly different words three, four and five times. Some tighter editing would have definitely improved the book.
A hard book to rate - subject matter is intensely interesting, but the writing style is repetitive and occasionally hard to follow. Sacks doesn't seem to know his audience well (as other reviewers also mention) since he throws out a lot of hyper specific terminology without much explanation, but also talks too simply to engage people who already have knowledge in the space. Makes for a bit of a strange read. Giving 3 stars in case that's more indicative of the state of publishing/writing in 1985 than how he would write in a more modern context. It definitely showed its age, which was both interesting and jarring.
Although this book is over 30 years old, Oliver Sacks's observations of his patients still come off as fresh, insightful, and compassionate. I will probably need to re-read several passages to give his ideas the attention they deserve. I really enjoy his ontological and epistemological musings peppered throughout the book. With humor and empathy, Sacks opens the world of all sorts of mental 'disorders' that challenge traditional assumptions about what it means to be human.
What a testimony to the flexibility and depth of function of the human brain. Sacks is a gifted writer and an accomplished observer of his fellow humans. I was fascinated by each of the narratives, but found that the connections made to music and math really resonated with me. Both of these disciplines provide a world unto themselves. And as Sacks proposes, welcoming worlds to the people whose stories he tells.
I placed this book on my "childhood favorites shelf". Yes, it does belong there. I picked it up as a pre-teen and thumbed through it, reading the strange stories. I picked it up again a few years later, reading more of the scientific explanations. Then again. And again. I read it until I'd read everything over and over, until pages started to fall out of our worn copy. It was one of the first places that I explored the complexities of the human mind, and may possibly have been the first inspiration for my plans to become a neurologist.
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