The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales

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It's a hit!

Oliver Sacks engagingly and eloquently allows the reader into his world--his case history--of neurology. More than a collection of figures with a m... (show more)

Oliver Sacks engagingly and eloquently allows the reader into his world--his case history--of neurology. More than a collection of figures with a motley assortment of neurological oddities, Sacks writes humanely, warmly, about his former patients--"clients," as he tells us they have begun to be termed--that he viewed in his professional domain.

More than only the case history of a handful of people, or a dry background of one, the book engages readers already familiar with psychology, physiology, and neurology through Sacks' own familiarity (and, indeed, direct contact) with some of these figures.

This book is fascinating in both its historical implication--see specifically the language used to describe the "clients;" this was the language of 1984--and its linguistic and general-knowledge contribution--see the game of mental chess played out, the mental sparing, the recall of passages and philosophical underpinnings.

The book was engaging enough to claw its way to a spot on my night-table, where I spent a sleepless night or two with it, here dozing, there reading, and there contemplating. (show less)

 

 

by Facebook-gebruiker

No, it's a flop!

"The author who mistook himself for Freud"?
This book is a series of descriptions of patients with psychiatric and neurological problems, written ... (show more)

"The author who mistook himself for Freud"?
This book is a series of descriptions of patients with psychiatric and neurological problems, written by a neurologist. It is a nice read, but be warned: there are too many flattering reviews written, and they set me up for disappointment.

If you have never given a second thought to anybody with brain damage, and you take for granted that you are a better person than a person with psychiatric problems, and you unquestioningly accept all the labels ascribed to people with "deficits", then you'll really be taken on a ride.
It might be eye-opening reading for teenagers?

Sachs conveys what he will say about his patients very well, but to say he is a "gifted writer" and so on creates unfairly high expectations among readers. I don't understand the hype. Are people so lacking in compassion and a general interest in the world beyond their own noses that they have failed to ponder any of what Sachs writes about? Perhaps I was let down when I read it because of its high ratings, and the fact that it has been routinely advertised in every issue of the NYRB for decades. The old-fashioned tone of the book, and Sachs's tendency to drop signs of his own highbrow taste and education struck me as a vaguely irritating way to assert his credibility. (show less)

 

 

by Facebook-gebruiker

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  By the man who wrote Awakenings and who Bill Murray's character in The Royal Tannenbaums was based on
  Incredibly interesting view of some of the most unusual neurological disorders
  Sacks takes a very humanistic and holistic view of what too often become abstract data points
  He carefully studies how these diseases affect his patients physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually and tries to use humane judgment on how best to help them lead happy, productive lives even if it doesn't mean &... (show more)

  By the man who wrote Awakenings and who Bill Murray's character in The Royal Tannenbaums was based on
  Incredibly interesting view of some of the most unusual neurological disorders
  Sacks takes a very humanistic and holistic view of what too often become abstract data points
  He carefully studies how these diseases affect his patients physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually and tries to use humane judgment on how best to help them lead happy, productive lives even if it doesn't mean "curing" them.
  One of my favorite moments occurs where he's trying to help a man with no short-term memory (Like the movie Memento)and he's miserable because he lives in a world where no experience connects with any other. Sacks is ruminating on the philosophical implications and he asks one of the nuns who works at the hospital if she thinks he has a soul. She shows him the patient taking Communion and he realizes that he doesn't lose his memory when he's focused on a familiar, rhythmic task. From there he's able to suggest better activities for him that keep his attention and that he doesn't forget and give him a better quality of life.
  Absolutely fascinating reading (show less)

   

  by Cruz Flores on May 16, 2009 at 12:46AM

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  Long considered a classic in psychological case studies and brain dysfunctions (identified as either losses, excesses, transports, or simplifications), Sacks’ insights are somewhat dated in his use of terminology, as well as the lack of neuroscience research and evidence that has only emerged in the past two decades as a result of MRI technology. Although this breakthrough book was originally published in 1970 – accounting for some of my gentle criticisms – Sacks has outdone himself in his co... (show more)

  Long considered a classic in psychological case studies and brain dysfunctions (identified as either losses, excesses, transports, or simplifications), Sacks’ insights are somewhat dated in his use of terminology, as well as the lack of neuroscience research and evidence that has only emerged in the past two decades as a result of MRI technology. Although this breakthrough book was originally published in 1970 – accounting for some of my gentle criticisms – Sacks has outdone himself in his compassionate study of some of the strangest and most unusual cases that he has come across in his long career working with a diversity of mental and psychological impairments.

  Even forty years later, Sacks is still a visionary in some ways. Take, for instance, his assertion that there are more than the five conventional senses which we humans possess.

  We have five senses in which we glory and which we recognize and celebrate, senses that constitute the sensible world for us. But there are other senses – secret senses, sixth senses, if you will – equally vital, but unrecognized, and unlauded. These senses, unconscious, automatic, had to be discovered…Perhaps it will be in this space age, with the paradoxical license and hazards of gravity-free life, that we will truly appreciate our inners ears, our vestibules and all the other obscure receptors and reflexes that govern our body orientation.

  I honestly do not know how much of this is coming to pass in our time – although biofeedback has been studied by at least astronaut Mae Jemison, despite her unclear data and results – I’m sure Dr. Sacks predictions will someday come to pass. And I am equally curious to know what his opinions and interpretations are of the new field of neuroscience and its spectacular answers to the organic causes of all varieties
  of brain dysfunctions. (show less)

   

   

  by Erik Wise on Oct 21, 2009 at 01:16PM

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