Goodreads | Un anthropologue sur Mars

cathy rated it:

(review of isbn 0330343475)

05/16/07

bookshelves: non-fiction-read

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in January, 2004

recommends it for: Everyone, especially those who want to learn how to write a case study.

In An Anthropologist on Mars, Oliver Sacks seamlessly weaves fascinating patient stories and lessons in neurology for the layperson. This may sound quite dry if you're not into reading about bizarre behavior from brain circuitry goes awry, but Sacks makes the science very palatable. He acts as our well-traveled tour guide as we explore the everyday lives and thinking processes of seven people who have made creative use of their cognitive hiccups.

Some of the patients featured in this collecti...more In An Anthropologist on Mars, Oliver Sacks seamlessly weaves fascinating patient stories and lessons in neurology for the layperson. This may sound quite dry if you're not into reading about bizarre behavior from brain circuitry goes awry, but Sacks makes the science very palatable. He acts as our well-traveled tour guide as we explore the everyday lives and thinking processes of seven people who have made creative use of their cognitive hiccups.

Some of the patients featured in this collection of case studies have managed neurological differences from birth; others have had to re-program and mourn grave deficits due to freak events. Dr. Sacks explains the malleability and compensatory functions built into the brain when one portion becomes dim. Perhaps more importantly, he demonstrates via his subjects how the human spirit also adapts after sensory loss. His tale of a painter who was made colorblind after a car accident is an example of the latter: Sacks works through myriad possible explanations for this man’s newly colorless world; however, he is eventually left without a reason—or a cure. During this process, the artist manages to reform his creative identity; he comes to see his newly gray vision as "pure" and not “distracted by color”, so previously unseen forms begin to shape his noirish, multi-shadowed work.

I read this book about 4 years ago and the story that has stayed with me is that of a surgeon with uncontrollable Tourette's. This man is unable to stop his violent tics and outbursts even for a few moments, but he is allowed a mysteriously zen-like reprieve when his hands (and quite possibly his mind) are steadied as he performs surgery. The story illustrates for me what I think is Sacks' message: People are not their pathologies, and talents and interests should always be encouraged, even in the face of what we sometimes misdiagnose as deficits.

Neurology for Sacks is a vocation, not a career. He conducts his research and writing in a truly humanistic spirit, and what I most love about both is the compassion and respect he shows his patients; they are not treated as curious oddities or guinea pigs, as is the case in so many medical and psychological case studies. Throughout all his work Sacks maintains a sense of wonder about the people he treats. He demonstrates that people who seem detached from experience can have full lives, and in some cases, an inner life that is cognitively richer than that of "normal" folks ( i.e. those of us unhindered by neurological or physical challenges).

The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat is considered essential Sacks, but for reasons stated--especially that surgeon--I much prefer this collection.
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Katie rated it:

(review of isbn 0330343475)

03/21/08

Read in June, 2006

Reading this book felt sort of like fate, because I’d first heard of the author several years ago while chatting with a co-worker about his current book club reading. I was intrigued by the title, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and even more intrigued when I was told that it wasn’t fiction - Sacks is a neurologist and writes about real people. A different co-worker at the same job (don’t know if he was in the same book club) once described one of Sacks’s subjects who is autistic...more Reading this book felt sort of like fate, because I’d first heard of the author several years ago while chatting with a co-worker about his current book club reading. I was intrigued by the title, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and even more intrigued when I was told that it wasn’t fiction - Sacks is a neurologist and writes about real people. A different co-worker at the same job (don’t know if he was in the same book club) once described one of Sacks’s subjects who is autistic but has an incredible affinity with animals, particularly cattle, and designs more humane “animal management systems.” This is a chapter in Anthropologist, as I learned a few weeks ago when chatting with my friend GP and she brought up the same story. So, I borrowed the book!

An Anthropologist on Mars I was completely fascinated, reading the true stories of people like the Abstract Expressionist painter who loses his ability to see color. He couldn’t even remember what color looked like after the injury to his brain. Then there’s the surgeon who has Tourette’s syndrome - with extreme lunges and “tic” gesturing at all times, even while he’s driving, except when he’s operating. I had heard of Tourette’s many times but never really knew much about it. And there are several stories about autism - I learned a lot from these as well.

Sacks writes these case studies as a knowledgeable but sympathetic and sensitive observer. He clearly explains the patient’s situation and doesn’t hide the sad, “disabling” aspects of the brain conditions. But, he also does justice to the extraordinary, “super-human” traits that the patients have and how these elevate them to a plane that is just as human, but very different, from a normal person. As a neurologist he is of course interested in them as subjects of study, but he values them as people and friends and tries very hard to spend some “real life” time with them. Readers benefit from this and are able to get to know these unique individuals as well. ...less

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