The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

by Oliver Sacks (Goodreads Author)

4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 · rating details · 43,049 ratings · 1,865 reviews

In his most extraordinary book, "one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century" (The New York Times) recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. Oliver Sacks's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberratio...more

Paperback, 243 pages

Published April 2nd 1998 by Touchstone (first published 1985)

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The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Best Non-Fiction (non biography)

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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Medicine and Literature

2nd out of 713 books — 725 voters

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May 02, 2013 Huda Yahya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, psychology

كيف يمكن لإنسانٍ أن يخسر هويته ولا يدري خسارته
كيف يتحول معنى الهوية بروحه إلى لا معنى،،إلى لاشئ؟

في هذا الكتاب تتعلم من جديد إحترام الإنسانية
فجنون أدب العبث ولامنطقيته يتجسد هنا في نماذج حقيقة لبشرٍ يفتشون عن بقاياهم المتناثرة في الكون العابث بهم والمنتظر لردود أفعالهم التي تأتي مذهلة وغير متوقعة

هنا نتعلم معانٍ جديدة لكلمتي
مأســـاة و نضـــال

هنا يتجلى الوجع الإنساني وغرائبه وضياعه الفلسفي المتجسد في أمراضٍ عصبية عجيبة ومثيرة للدهشة

كلنا هذا الكائن المسكين الضائع في الكون الضخم والباحث عن هويته
عن...more

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Jan 27, 2013 Dina Nabil rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pdf

كتاب ممتاز و ممتع ..للقارئ العادى متعه و ليا شبه مذاكره نظرا لدراستى فى المجال الطبى

بيتكلم عن الامراض العصبيه الغريبه اللى مرت على الطبيب الكاتب يصيغها فى شكل حدوته ظريفه شارحا ابعادها العلميه...فيمزج بين الطب و الادب بمهاره الحاوى لاعبا بالبيض و الحجاره دون كسر احدها فيمسك ذلك الخيط الرفيع الذى يحافظ على التسليه مع المتعه

اتمنى ان اكتسب يوما تلك الخبره الطبيه اولا ثم اتمنى ان احظى بموهبه تصيغ ذلك كعمل ادبى/طبى كهذا الكتاب

وجدت بعض الصعوبه فى اللغه العربيه نظرا لفهمى المصطلحات الطبيه بالانجليزيه ا...more

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Sep 15, 2008 Sheffy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Despite so many people recommending this book, my high expectations were disappointed. Yes, it's perversely interesting to hear about neurological conundrums that afflict people in peculiar ways, but Sacks isn't a particularly good writer, nor does he have a good grasp on his audience. At times he obliquely refers to medical syndromes or footnotes other neurologists, as if he is writing for a technical physician audience, but on the whole his stories are too simplistic to engage such an audience...more

49 likes · like · see review

Apr 16, 2007 Mona rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, science-health

I first heard about this book when my biology professor mentioned it in class in reference to right-brain and left-brain disorders. Just last year, I had the good fortune to see the author himself - Dr. Sacks - speak at the university in my hometown. He was a dynamic and entertaining speaker and from then on, I resolved to try out his books. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat matched its author. The book is a collection of case studies on Dr. Sacks's patients with neurological disorders. Sac...more I first heard about this book when my biology professor mentioned it in class in reference to right-brain and left-brain disorders. Just last year, I had the good fortune to see the author himself - Dr. Sacks - speak at the university in my hometown. He was a dynamic and entertaining speaker and from then on, I resolved to try out his books. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat matched its author. The book is a collection of case studies on Dr. Sacks's patients with neurological disorders. Sacks divides the book into four parts, each of which deals with "losses" and "excesses of neurological functions, "transports" of hallucinations, visions, and imagination, and "the simple", concerning the mentally or physically challenged, respectively.

In one chapter titled "The Twins", Sacks describes a pair of twins who had the ability to factor large numbers in their heads, so much so that they could calculate the date of any day of the week in history. He discovers that numbers, especially prime numbers were, for them, a special sort of communication that required no thinking through but was instantaneous. In another chapter, Sacks relates how a previously healthy patient woke up one morning convinced that the leg lying in his bed was not his. Efforts to convince him otherwise (including his own efforts to toss it out onto the floor which resulted in the rest of him falling out as well) were fruitless. How and why do these pheomena occur? These are the questions Sacks attempts to answer.

Although Sacks includes discussion of concepts that may be familiar only to psychologists or neurologists, the book is accessible to readers without that type of backgroud. It was extremely readable, such that I finished it in two days. My only complaint is that although Sacks includes a postscript to most of the chapters to explain further studies or new discoveries that occurred after he first met these patients, there is often no resolution to these stories. This is understandable, considering that many of the patients' disorders are unusual and may not have any resolution, but I still found it a little frustrating. I do, however, want to do more reading on this subject and look foward to reading Sacks' book titled Awakening. (less)

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May 04, 2010 Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: truthiness

This is not only an informative work on neurological disorders, but a humbling meditation on the beauty of imperfection. Through entering the worlds of a number of "limited" individuals, Sacks reveals the brain's (and therefore the individual's) remarkable ability to overcompensate for cognitive deficiencies. As a result of these heightened states of perception, the often frightening and infinitely compelling worlds of each individual are manifested in the means with which they organize and enga...more

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Mar 09, 2008 Dru rated it 3 of 5 stars

Dear Dr. Sacks,
On page 112 of the paperback edition of your book, the second paragraph begins with the following sentence:
"And with this, no feeling that he has lost feeling (for the feeling he has lost), no feeling that he has lost the depth, that unfathomable, mysterious, myriad-levelled depth which somehow defines identity or reality."
I've read this sentence at least twelve times, and I still don't even have the slightest inkling of what the hell it means. What is the subject? What is the ve...more

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Jan 09, 2008 Bell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: health

Very interesting neurological case studies that begged me to reconsider intelligence and "normalcy" particularly in terms of visual perception and its relationship to reality. Also fascinating was the profound structure that the arts (he specifically mentions music, dance, story-telling and drawing) provide for those with the inability to form or develop conceptual frameworks. Indeed, it seems that the fine arts aren't just high-concepts of beauty and art, but healing mechanisms crucial to many...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Soumya Sayujya rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, reviews

It's a work on various neurological disorders that the author has personally encountered.
This book also makes us embrace and fall in love with imperfections! (Some of the victims of various neurological disorders described in this book almost feel complete after they have succumbed to their diseases! )
Some cases in this book also made me question what does it actually mean to be perfect? Isn't perfection an ideal form actually never attained by anyone? Although I didn't find any answer for that...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Lona rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

وعندما همَّ السيد "بي" بالمغادرة ، ودَّع الطبيب و مدَّ يده ليتناول قبعته وأمسك بدلاً منها برأس زوجته ........ ومن هنا جاءت تسمية الكتاب (الرجل الذي حسب زوجته قبعة) ، ولمعرفة السبب والتفاصيل أدعوكم لقراءة الكتاب

الكتاب يتناول مجموعة من الاضطرابات العصبية الغريبة و النادرة، مشروحة بطريقة مبسطة سهلت الفهم ... ولأنني أملك خلفية/اهتمامات طبية لم أجد الكتاب معقداً وكان أشبه بالمراجعة، وأعتقد أن الكتاب في متناول الجميع بكافة المستويات

الكتاب مُقسَّم لأربعة أقسام، كل قسم يتناول مجموعة من الحالات المرضية م...more وعندما همَّ السيد "بي" بالمغادرة ، ودَّع الطبيب و مدَّ يده ليتناول قبعته وأمسك بدلاً منها برأس زوجته ........ ومن هنا جاءت تسمية الكتاب (الرجل الذي حسب زوجته قبعة) ، ولمعرفة السبب والتفاصيل أدعوكم لقراءة الكتاب

الكتاب يتناول مجموعة من الاضطرابات العصبية الغريبة و النادرة، مشروحة بطريقة مبسطة سهلت الفهم ... ولأنني أملك خلفية/اهتمامات طبية لم أجد الكتاب معقداً وكان أشبه بالمراجعة، وأعتقد أن الكتاب في متناول الجميع بكافة المستويات

الكتاب مُقسَّم لأربعة أقسام، كل قسم يتناول مجموعة من الحالات المرضية مشروحة بطريقة قصصية ولكنها تشترك في صفة أساسية اختارها المؤلف كعنوان للقسم

القسم الأول: عن "الفقد" ... يتكلم عن الاضطرابات الذي تؤدي إلى فقد وظيفة معينة في الجسم
القسم الثاني: عن "الفرط" ... يتكلم عن الاضطرابات التي تؤدي إلى فرط "زيادة" إحدى وظائف الجسم
القسم الثالث: عن "قدرة التخيُّل والذاكرة" ... الاضطرابات التي أدت إلى مضاعفة قدرة التخيل والذاكرة للمرضى (استمتعت بهذا الفصل كثيراً)
القسم الرابع: "عالم السُّذَّج" ... حالات لأشخاص مختلين ولكنهم عباقرة (آلمني هذا الفصل كثيراً) ... أحسست بحزن المؤلف لشعوره بالتقصير ووقوفه عاجزاً أمام هؤلاء المرضى الذين عجز العلم عن تقديم يد المساعدة لهم "فصل إنساني جداً"

خلال عرضه للحالات لفت انتباهي "القسم الثاني من الكتاب" تشبث بعض المرض بمرضهم ورفضهم بأن يكونوا طبيعيين، لأن ما هم عليه من تميُّز كان بسبب هذه الأمراض "نحن في مياه غريبة هنا، قد تُعكَس فيها كل الاعتبارات المعتادة، حيث المرض قد يكون عافية، والسويَّة مرضاً، وحيث الإثارة قد تكون عبودية أو تحريراً"

شعرت بالذنب عند قراءتي للكتاب، وكأنني أحتاج لمن يُذكرني بإعجاز خَلْقِنَا ودقة تصميمنا وتوازننا، وكيف أن اختلال بسيط في مكان ما قد ينتج عنه حالة مرضية تُعجز العلماء بطبيعتها وصعوبة علاجها (أَفَحَسِبْتُمْ أَنَّمَا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ عَبَثًا) ... سبحان الله ... فعلاً صدق الله عندما قال (وَمَا أُوتِيتُمْ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا)

الترجمة "معقولة" وكان من الممكن أن تكون أفضل ... هذه النوعية من الكتب من المفروض أن تراجع من قبل أشخاص لهم خلفية طبية لإعطاء ترجمة المصطلحات الطبية حقَّها

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Apr 07, 2013 Ensiform rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, brain

Twenty-four case studies, grouped under four rubrics: Losses (amnesia, total loss of proprioception, etc); Excesses (Tourette’s, a Korsakov’s patient in a state of constant, frantic confabulation as a defense against amnesia, etc); Transports (cases of involuntary reminiscence and heightened senses); and The World of the Simple (autistic and retarded patients, mostly with eidetic powers).

Though it’s much more clinical in style than An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales, this is stil...more

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May 15, 2008 J.C. rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I came across an old reading journal, where I summarized each of the stories in this intruiging book:

A collection of stories about patients with neurological disorders—strange, unique, and human.

“The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat”—Dr. P cannot recognize faces or visual images. His brain is deteriorating in a way that causes him to see only individual features and not the whole. He can only keep at a task by singing, and if he’s interrupted, he forgets everything.
“The Lost Mariner”—A 49-year...more I came across an old reading journal, where I summarized each of the stories in this intruiging book:

A collection of stories about patients with neurological disorders—strange, unique, and human.

“The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat”—Dr. P cannot recognize faces or visual images. His brain is deteriorating in a way that causes him to see only individual features and not the whole. He can only keep at a task by singing, and if he’s interrupted, he forgets everything.
“The Lost Mariner”—A 49-year old man cannot remember anything past the mid-1940s, and he always thinks he is 19. He can’t hold any thought for more than a few seconds, although he is very sharp. He has no real emotions, since he can’t really remember anything, but he seems to find peace when he gardens.
“The Disembodied Lady”—A once-healthy woman suddenly loses all sense of proprioception”—her sense of self and where her body is. She has to relearn walking, etc., by watching all her movements (so she knows where everything is).
“The Man Who Fell Out of Bed”—A man who thinks someone has attached a fake leg to his body tries to throw it out of bed—but realizes it is his own. He cannot recognize it, or feel it, but he cannot think where his own leg might be. It is like a dead leg.
“Hands”—60 year old blind woman with cerebral palsy cannot do anything with her hands because they feel like lumps of dough. She is taught, however, to recognize things by touch, and finally she learns to sculpt. She reveals her true talent as an artist, and proves that others with her problem can also be cured.
“Phantoms”—A phantom is the sensation of feeling a limb is still intact, even after it has been amputated. This can sometimes be painful, dangerous, or even helpful. It is nearly impossible to teach an amputee to walk again if there is no sensation that a leg still exists. This is not one, but several short examples.
“On the Level”—A dynamic 93-year old man with Parkinson’s disease doesn’t realize he is walking at a tilted 20-degree angle. He fixes the problem ingeniously, however, by designing a special pair of glasses that work as a spirit level, just as in carpentry. He can tell when he’s walking straight.
“Eyes Right”—Having suffered a massive stroke that affected her right cerebral hemisphere, a woman in her 60s no longer has a concept of “left.” She cannot look left and only makes up half of her face. When shown a video image of herself, she can see her left, but it is disturbing to her since she cannot feel it.
“The President’s Speech”—Aphasiacs cannot understand words as such, but they can recognize utterance well enough to understand almost completely what was said to them. This is why they found the president’s speech so funny—they understood what he was saying better than those who understood he words.
“Witty Ticcy Ray”—A victim of Tourette’s since 4, Ray cannot imagine a life without his sudden, violent tics. They keep him sharp-witted, quick, and brilliant at percussion and ping-pong. He briefly tries the drug Haldol but is discouraged to find it slows him down and prevents him from being himself. For 3 months, he imagines life without Tourette’s, and when he tries the drug again, it works ‘miraculously.’ But because he misses his ‘freedom,’ he does not take the drug on weekends—and leads a stable life.
“Cupid’s Disease”—Having contracted syphilis 70 years ago, and having it treated but not eradicated, Mrs. K suddenly feels younger, livelier, and “frisky.” Rather than having it treated, however, she chooses to remain feeling young. Another man experiencing this excited stage of neurosyphilis is very animated. After being given Haldol to quiet him down, he lost his animation and energy.
“A Matter of Identity”—Mr. Thompson cannot identify anyone correctly, so he makes up fictional characters and recognizes people as such. He also cannot accurately remember anything, and so he creates a past of fiction. He is like Jimmie in “The Lost Mariner” with Korsakov’s, but the only time he seems at peace is when he’s by himself and doesn’t need to make up stories.
“Yes, Father-Sister”—Although very smart, Mrs. B developed an irreversible indifference to the world. She knew the difference between right and left, but it didn’t mean anything to her.
“The Possessed”—The story relates the author’s experience of seeing a “Super Touretter” in the streets of NYC. The woman mimicked every person she saw, but was incapable of creating any gestures of her own. She lacked her own personality and was eaten away by Tourette’s.

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Jan 02, 2013 Cecily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: miscellaneous-non-fiction, science-ish

I picked this up at a railway station, shortly after it was published, not quite knowing what to expect.

All these years later, I remember it well. It was my first introduction to all sorts of conditions that are now more widely known to the general public, and left me amazed at the power and quirks of the human brain.

Funny, tragic, but never sentimental, Sacks writes with engaging charm.

That said, one can't help feeling a twinge of guilt, perhaps like a spectator at a Victorian freak show, even...more

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Jan 20, 2012 Jessica La La La La La! rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, science-et-al, music-therapy, psychology, health-medicine

“You have to begin to lose your memory, if only in bits and pieces, to realize that memory is what makes our lives. Life without memory is no life at all… Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it, we are nothing… (I can only wait for the final amnesia, the one that can erase an entire life, as it did my mother’s…)”
— Luis Buñuel
(23)

___________________

If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye, but if he has lost a self - himsel...more

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Aug 17, 2010 Laala Alghata rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book isn't easy to review, because it's not a novel, or short story collection; it's not poetry, or essays. It's straight up non-fiction in the form of case studies and clinical analysis of different bizarre neurological cases that Oliver Sacks came across. There's everything from the titular character -- a man who really did mistake his wife for his hat -- to people with Tourette's, both severe and manageable; from excesses to people with IQs of 60 but who possess amazing talents.

There is...more

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Jul 12, 2009 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hmmm.. what to say, what to say...
I did enjoy reading Sacks' observations and perceptions of his patients ('clients') with their various - and quite bizarre - ailments and conditions, but only on the level of intellectual curiosity.
On another (visceral?) level my reactions were much more complex and I'm not entirely sure I can communicate effectively how reading this book made me feel.
Trying to analyse these feelings, I had an enormous empathy for the souls concerned and was greatly moved by the...more

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Beejay Hi Jim,

Will very much look forward to your comments on this one. Sachs is so fascinating as the subject of an interview and for years I have been prom...more
May 19, 2009 09:23pm

Jim Beejay wrote: "Hi Jim,

Will very much look forward to your comments on this one. Sachs is so fascinating as the subject of an interview and for years I...more
May 27, 2009 02:59am

Ka if it makes you feel better, reading any sort of psychological text that describes various problems makes everyone think "oh no, I do that sometimes!...more
Aug 29, 2011 07:19am

Mar 03, 2012 Jerry rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone interested in the human mind

Shelves: science

I picked up this book because my son read it and related some fascinating stories from it. The depictions of the various problems of Dr.Sacks's clients are amazing. You really begin to understand how precarious and delicate an instrument the brain is. I learned a lot from this book, though admittedly I know next to nothing about brain science. I found especially fascinating the discussions on the "other senses" of the brain that constantly monitor our bodies and identities.

The book was "front-lo...more

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Nov 24, 2011 Andrea rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

Please read Sheffy's review of this book and know that I agree 100% with that review.

I found this book absolutely fascinating, but poorly written, outdated, and I wanted more from it. I wanted neurological explanations for more of the cases, which I guess weren't available in 1985 but should be available now (and I believe this book was reprinted at some point since its original printing). There isn't enough technical explanations in some places, whereas in other places terms, references and sit...more

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Feb 14, 2011 Thomas rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Accessible neuroscience," as my mom would say. Sacks is clearly a physician and not a psychologist (people are cases to be dissected; their behavior patterns are a disease to be discovered) but his deep interest and passion for neurology does appear buttressed with deep concern for the well-being of his patients. Really an enjoyable read.

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May 12, 2008 Tim rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked up this book because I am a fan of Oliver Sacks and his various speaking engagements (lectures, public radio interviews, etc)...but I have to say I was fairly nonplussed with it.

While the case studies in and of themselves make for interesting reading, the tone of the writing is fairly "clinical" and...removed. Despite the review blurbs stating that these are "personal" and "touchingly human" looks at neurological disorders, I saw only a few glimpses of this warmth (an example that sprin...more

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Feb 21, 2008 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone with an interest in out-of-the-ordinary people and events.

Absolutely amazing! In "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat", the author, a prominent neurosurgeun, introduces the reader to his most interesting patients, all of whom have sustained - and are coping with - varying degrees of brain damage. In this collection, you'll gain insights into the astonishing inner world of the neurological patient: the titular patient, who was completely baffled by an object he was asked to identify - until he smelled it; the man who mistook a zoo's tigress for his...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Fellini rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

Очень интересная книга. Я не могу разделить восторги того, кто мне посоветовал эту книгу, но в общем и целом чтение весьма занимательное. Понятно, что большинство поведенческих и эмоциональных проявлений связано с физиологическим состоянием мозга. Оливер Сакс рассказывает истории того, как это бывает. Причём рассказывает хорошо и доступно, без увлечённости специальной терминологией.

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Mar 26, 2013 Savannah S rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was really interesting.

I really liked the way that Dr. Sacks narrated all of the stories. The way his writing seemed somewhat impartial, yet also very emotional was really interesting and made the book a better read. You could tell that, on some level, he deeply cared for almost all of the patients he talked about.

The subject matter of this book was also very interesting. Psychology (and neurology) greatly interests me. However, science often doesn't, so the way Dr. Sacks was able to...more

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Jul 19, 2008 Roman rated it 4 of 5 stars

All fiction inevitably explores human perception and consciousness. These neurological case studies are a more direct approach. Abnormal and afflicted minds reveal much about how complex and rich we are.

I struggled with some of his excessive description and analysis and found myself skipping from one case-study to the next; specifically, italicizing the word "that" twice in one sentence, a dry winter "twiglet," the "febrile intimacy" of an autistic's house - nothing febrile about it far as I can...more

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May 05, 2011 Paleomichi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scienza, neurologia, psicologia, medicina, saggi

Oliver Sacks dimostra in questo libro una straordinaria attenzione al lettore e alle sue reazioni durante la lettura.
La prima sezione ("perdite") all'inizio mi ha suscitato curiosità. Questa, tuttavia, ha presto lasciato il posto all'angoscia, in parte determinata dall'empatia per le persone descritte, che per uno sfortunato caso della vita si sono ritrovate in condizioni drammatiche, in parte dalla consapevolezza che alcuni di questi problemi potrebbero capitare a chiunque, anche a me.
La second...more

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Mar 25, 2009 Jill rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'd picked this book up thinking it would be a light, undemanding read - a collection of medical oddities and bizarre tales. Some of the tales do fall into this category: The Disembodied Lady (about a woman who suffers a loss of proprioception), Hands (about a woman who doesn't regard her hands as being part of herself) and Phantoms (about phantom limbs). But other tales were more a reflection on the human condition. In the title tale, Sacks muses over severe visual agnosia and its destruction o...more

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Jan 10, 2009 bookczuk rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: great-title

Read this years ago, and it still remains one of my all time favorites for a book-title. Good book too, though sometimes I can really identify with the hat/wife. To be wild released or stock an BookCrossing zone shelf.

From the Publisher
In his most extraordinary book, "one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century" (The New York Times) recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. Oliver Sacks's The Man Who Mistook Hi...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Marnie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a book about brain disorders and how they shape people's perception of the world and themselves. It's an endlessly interesting topic and a bit scary to imagine how fragile anyone's hold on reality might be. The author, a neurologist discusses the patients, what their disorder is, how they got it and what, if any treatment was employed.

As a general rule, medical and scientific non-fiction (the sort written for laymen) is right up my alley, and I think there are a lot of really good examp...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Maurinejt rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book has been on my "to read" list ever since I heard Dr. Sacks speak, years ago. (He is just as charming and enthralling to listen to as you might imagine.) While perusing his backlist after the talk, The book that the adoring crowd mentioned the most was this one.

This is a great work, one that is not all that surprising today but I suspect it was revolutionary when written. At first I was a little taken aback because I wanted stories of people overcoming adversity, House episodes wrapped...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Lark rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: medical

This book is an anthology made of four parts, each delving into a specific area of neurology that is seldom viewed and reviewed.

I adore this book. It is just beautiful in all the right ways and every way possible.

The first two parts cover loss of self and excess. These two parts were what I expected from the synopsis - fascinating and terribly intriguing. Each story is marvelous on its own, and the way Sacks describes his approach and the situation combined with his thoughts on the nature of th...more This book is an anthology made of four parts, each delving into a specific area of neurology that is seldom viewed and reviewed.

I adore this book. It is just beautiful in all the right ways and every way possible.

The first two parts cover loss of self and excess. These two parts were what I expected from the synopsis - fascinating and terribly intriguing. Each story is marvelous on its own, and the way Sacks describes his approach and the situation combined with his thoughts on the nature of the mind and body and soul really resonates with what I believe medicine should look like.

The third and fourth part of the book moves more into a more abstract view of it all - less medicine, more abstract soul and emotions. But still beautiful.

What makes this book so beautiful (and why I'm waxing poetic about it) is just because each scene could be an interesting story on its own; but Sacks sets them together into a story that reveals something about the human mind as well as human nature. There is an artistry to his writing, there is something there that combines science and soul. Or perhaps art.

I also love the amount of references he makes to other famous works. I will definitely be rereading this book to fully understand all referenced literature.
And his postscripts are particularly fascinating to read - to know what happens in the aftermath, or if other thoughts have occurred after writing it all.

I should also note that you can tell this book was written quite a while ago with some politically incorrect terms used in the books and the science articles referenced, but that just adds to my amazement of how relevant all of this still is.

Five stars because it is well written and it's just beautiful, and I feel like it changed me. And I only give five stars to books that have opened my eyes to something fundamentally different in the world, or have particularly touched me.
Recommended for people interested in medicine and in neurology. But also recommended for people who wonder if science and soul can be combined.
Actually... really, recommended for everyone, because everyone should read this. (less)

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Feb 20, 2013 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars

We like to think that freak shows are a thing of the past and as far as carnival sideshows they pretty much are; the freaks have moved onto Channel 5 so there’s clearly still a market for our fascination for human oddities. I was a little worried when I started this book that what we were getting was a mental freak show, women and men, like the titular man who literally tried to lift his wife’s head off her shoulders thinking it was his hat. Thankfully, as the book progressed, we started to see...more We like to think that freak shows are a thing of the past and as far as carnival sideshows they pretty much are; the freaks have moved onto Channel 5 so there’s clearly still a market for our fascination for human oddities. I was a little worried when I started this book that what we were getting was a mental freak show, women and men, like the titular man who literally tried to lift his wife’s head off her shoulders thinking it was his hat. Thankfully, as the book progressed, we started to see more of the humanity of these poor unfortunate souls and that made me feel less guilty for enjoying what I was reading. A lot of the time there’s aren’t any real answers to the conditions described and mostly the patients are never cured or if they are the cure saps the life out of them. An example of this is a man with Tourette’s who had used his involuntary tics to his advantage and become a talented drummer and table tennis player. Once on drugs to normalise him he lost his edge and became ordinary and (as far as he was concerned) boring, so much so that he chose to come of his meds at the weekends so he could have something of the life he felt he’d lost. And this is something Sacks comes back to time and times again, the positive aspects that often go with mental illness. It’s clear from reading the postscripts—many of these cases are many years old—that neurology has come on in leaps and bounds but still has so much to learn. A pair of twins for example although having IQs of about sixty demonstrated an incredible affinity for numbers and used to amuse themselves trading off huge prime numbers and yet were incapable of solving even the most basic of sums. They were dubbed ‘human calculators’ but since they didn’t calculate the unanswered question is really: How did they comprehend numbers? Clearly not as numerals. All they could say is that they ‘saw’ the answers.

It’s a fascinating book although you’ll need to expand your vocabulary a fair bit to enjoy it because although he defines words like ‘aphasia’ briefly he does chuck them round with relish afterwards. A glossary might’ve been a nice addition because there were too many, too quickly for me to commit them all to memory and I felt that a lot of the time I was only getting the gist of what he was saying and not grasping as fully as I would’ve liked what he was really on about. The book is dated though—in content and language (hence the three stars)—and so I’m not sure how much psychology students will benefit from reading it apart from as an historical document.
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About Oliver Sacks

Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE (born July 9, 1933, London), is a British neurologist residing in the United States, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.

Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and E...more Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE (born July 9, 1933, London), is a British neurologist residing in the United States, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.

Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and Elsie, a surgeon. When he was six years old, he and his brother were evacuated from London to escape The Blitz, retreating to a boarding school in the Midlands, where he remained until 1943. During his youth, he was a keen amateur chemist, as recalled in his memoir Uncle Tungsten. He also learned to share his parents' enthusiasm for medicine and entered The Queen's College, Oxford University in 1951, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in physiology and biology in 1954. At the same institution, he went on to earn in 1958, a Master of Arts (MA) and an MB ChB in chemistry, thereby qualifying to practice medicine.

After converting his British qualifications to American recognition (i.e., an MD as opposed to MB ChB), Sacks moved to New York, where he has lived since 1965, and taken twice weekly therapy sessions since 1966.

Sacks began consulting at chronic care facility Beth Abraham Hospital (now Beth Abraham Health Service) in 1966. At Beth Abraham, Sacks worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness, encephalitis lethargica, who had been unable to move on their own for decades. These patients and his treatment of them were the basis of Sacks' book Awakenings.

His work at Beth Abraham helped provide the foundation on which the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF), where Sacks is currently an honorary medical advisor, is built. In 2000, IMNF honored Sacks, its founder, with its first Music Has Power Award. The IMNF again bestowed a Music Has Power Award on Sacks in 2006 to commemorate "his 40 years at Beth Abraham and honor his outstanding contributions in support of music therapy and the effect of music on the human brain and mind".

Sacks was formerly employed as a clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and at the New York University School of Medicine, serving the latter school for 42 years. On 1 July 2007, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons appointed Sacks to a position as professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry, at the same time opening to him a new position as "artist", which the university hoped will help interconnect disciplines such as medicine, law, and economics. Sacks remains a consultant neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor, and maintains a practice in New York City.

Since 1996, Sacks is a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature). In 1999, Sacks became a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. Also in 1999, he became an Honorary Fellow at The Queen's College, Oxford. In 2002, he became Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Class IV—Humanities and Arts, Section 4—Literature).[38] and he was awarded the 2001 Lewis Thomas Prize by Rockefeller University. Sacks has been awarded honorary doctorates from the College of Staten Island (1991), Tufts University (1991), New York Medical College (1991), Georgetown University (1992), Medical College of Pennsylvania (1992), Bard College (1992), Queen's University (Ontario) (2001), Gallaudet University (2005), University of Oxford (2005), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006). He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours. Asteroid 84928 Oliversacks, discovered in 2003 and 2 miles (3.2 km) in diameter, has been named in his honor.
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“If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it.” — 38 people liked it

“If we wish to know about a man, we ask 'what is his story--his real, inmost story?'--for each of us is a biography, a story. Each of us is a singular narrative, which is constructed, continually, unconsciously, by, through, and in us--through our perceptions, our feelings, our thoughts, our actions; and, not least, our discourse, our spoken narrations. Biologically, physiologically, we are not so different from each other; historically, as narratives--we are each of us unique.” — 35 people liked it

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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

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