Man Who MIstook His Wife for a Hat by Sacks - Oliver (2011) Paperback

A neurologist describes his experiences with patients suffering from physical disorders which cause them problems I did not think were possible to have. The title is literally true in spite of sounding like a joke.

A disturbing and engrossing read.

Brought up neurological injuries that lead to unusal behaviors: for instance man who murdered lover who was injured and claimed amnesia,not remembering the murder. Then he is hit by car and remembered in great detail how brutally he murdered his lover years later.

This book has been an interesting read, up to the point where Mr. Sacks injected his politics, in a most derogatory way, into the clinical studies. The only chapter thus far which deals with aphasia mocks President Reagan to a degree which is not only beneath the dignity of an otherwise interesting clinical research book, but which is completely out of place and repulsive to any common sense traditional conservative American. I will have a difficult time finding reason to finish reading this book.

The last line of the story "The President's Speech", which allegedly deals with aphasia, (though from my two years of hands on experience, it deals with aphasia quite poorly and inaccurately) is as follows: "And so cunningly was deceptive word-use combined with deceptive tone, that only the brain-damaged remained intact, undeceived." Unfortunately, for me, anyway, aphasia is the primary reason that I bought this book, as I am solo full-time caregiver for my Mom, who had a stroke which left her with Wernicke's Aphasia. I was hoping that Oliver Sacks had something useful to teach me.

If you're looking for a great book about clinical examination of peoples in which have the most bizarre neurological disorders, then get this book/audio cd! I am just beginning in my major of neuropsychology and I've learned so much just from listening to this book. I purchased the audio CD to listen to while driving and sometimes I do not want to get out of the car so I can finish the chapter. This is one of my new favorite books. Get it!

1- "In this first section, 'Losses', the most important case, to my mind, is that of a special form of visual agnosia: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat'. I believe it to be of fundamental importance. Such cases constitute a radical challenge to one of importance. Such cases constitute a radical challenge to one of the most entrenched axioms or assumptions of classical neurology--in particular, the notion that brain damage, any brain damage, reduces or removes the 'abstract and categorical attitude' (in Kurt Goldstein's term), reducing the individual to the emotional and concrete. (A very similar thesis was made by Hughlings Jack son in the 1860s.) Here, in the case of Dr P., we see the very opposite of this--a man who has (albeit only in the sphere of the visual) wholly lost the emotional, the concrete, the personal, the visual) wholly lost the emotional, the concrete, the personal, the 'real' . . . and been reduced, as it were, to the abstract and the categorical, with consequences of a particularly preposterous kind."

2- "It wasn't merely that he displayed the same indifference to the visual world as a computer but--even more strikingly--he construed the world as a computer construes it, by means of key features and schematic relationships. The scheme might be identified--in an 'identi-kit' way--^without the reality being grasped at all."

3- "You have to begin to lose your memory, if only in bits and pieces, to realise 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 Bunuel"

4- "The blind, at least, are treated with solicitude--we can imagine their state, and we treat them accordingly. But when Christina, painfully, clumsily, mounts a bus, she receives nothing but uncomprehending and angry snarls: 'What's wrong with you. lady? Are you blind--or blind-drunk?' What can she answer--'I have no proprioception'? The lack of social support and sympathy is an additional trial: disabled, but with the nature of her disability not clear--she is not, after all, manifestly blind or paralysed, manifestly anything--she tends to be treated as a phoney or a fool. This is what happens to those with disorders of the hidden senses (it happens also to patients who have vestibular impairment, or who have been labyrinthectomised)."

5- "We have five senses in which we glory and which we recognise and celebrate, senses that constitute the sensible world for us. Bu there are other senses--secret senses, sixth senses, if you will-- equally vital, but unrecognised, and unlauded. These senses, unequally vital, but unrecognised, and unlauded. These senses, unconscious, automatic, had to be discovered. Historically, indeed their discovery came late: what the Victorians vaguely called 'muscle sense'--the awareness of the relative position of trunk and limbs, derived from receptors in the joints and tendons--was only limbs, derived from receptors in the joints and tendons--was oi really defined (and named 'proprioception') in the 1890s. And the complex mechanisms and controls by which our bodies are properly aligned and balanced in space--these have only been defined in our own century, and still hold many mysteries. Perhaps it will only be in this space age, with the paradoxical license and hazards of gravity-free life, that we will truly appreciate our inner ears, our vestibules and all the other obscure receptors and reflexes that govern our body orientation. For normal man, in normal situations, they simply do not exist."

6- "When the neglect is severe, the patient may behave almost as if one half of the universe had abruptly ceased to exist in any meaningful form. . . . Patients with unilateral neglect behave not only as if nothing were actually happening in the left hemispace, but also as if nothing of any importance could be expected to occur there."

7- "To be ourselves we must have ourselves--possess, if need be re-possess, our life-stories. We must 'recollect' ourselves, recollect the inner drama, the narrative, of ourselves. A man needs such a narrative, a continuous inner narrative, to maintain his identity, his self."

8- "Because speech--natural speech--does not consist of words alone, nor (as Hughlings Jackson thought) 'propositions' alone. It consists of utterance--an uttering-forth of one's whole meaning with one's whole being--the understanding of which involves infinitely more than mere word-recognition. And this was the clue to aphasiacs' understanding, even when they might be wholly uncomprehending of words as such. For though the words. the verbal constructions, per se, might convey nothing, spoken language is normally suffused with 'tone', embedded in an expressiveness which transcends the verbal--and it is precisely this expressiveness, so deep, so various, so complex, so subtle, which is perfectly preserved in aphasia, though understanding of words be destroyed. Preserved--and often more: preternaturally enhanced."

9- "All the transports described in this section do have more or less clear organic determinants (though it was not evident too begin with, but required careful investigation to bring out). This does not detract in the least from their psychological or spiritual significance. If God, or the eternal order, was revealed to Dostoievski in seizures, why should not other organic conditions serve as 'portals' to the beyond or the unknown? In a sense, this section is a Study of such portals."

10- "Experience is not possible until it is organised iconicalilly; action is not possible unless it is organised iconically. 'The brain's record' of everything--everything alive--must be iconic. This is the final form of the brain's record, even though the preliminary form may be computational or programmatic. The final form of cerebral representation must be, or allow, 'art'--the artful scenery^ and melody of experience and action."

11- "By a sort of inversion, or subversion, of the natural order of things, concreteness is often seen by neurologists as a v wretched thing, beneath consideration, incoherent, regressed. Thus for Kurt Goldstein, the greatest systematiser of his generation, the mind, man's glory, lies wholly in the abstract and categoricical, and the effect of brain damage, any and all brain damage, is to cast him out from this high realm into the almost subhuman swamplands of the concrete. If a man loses the 'abstract-categorical attitude' (Goldstein), or 'propositional thought' (Hughlings Jackson), what remains is subhuman, of no moment or interest. I call this an inversion because the concrete is elemental--it is what makes reality 'real', alive, personal and meaningful."

This book is a fabulous read. The book demonstrates many mental disorders in a practical, humorous, and experienced manner. It is an easy read in that, being from a doctor, it moves very fast and is enjoyable even as an easy read. The book is highly informative and really shows a developmental aspect of understanding when dealing with the mind. I would highly recommend this read.

Dr. Oliver Sacks encapsulates years worth of neurological studies that are beyond normal, everyday comprehension. As a child of a parent who grew up with a semi-severe case of Tourette's Syndrome and having my own naturally occurring certain neurological "talents", I was particularly drawn first to Sack's film, Awakenings and at the suggestion of a friend with a passion for chemistry & physics, I undertook this book. Although well written and as descriptive as possible into the world of neurological anamolies, this writing is not for a non science - based mind. I often had to revert to Grey's Anatomy and reread footnotes more than once. Sacks takes a very complicated science and explains it to the lowest possible common denominator, which in itself, is is literary feat. If you are up for a challenge and a lesson into the human mind, this is an excellent read.

Another book I purchase for my daughter who wanted to know more about neuophysiology. My copy is very worn from loaning it to students to read and report about. He is a great author and source for the layman who wants more knowlege about neuroscience.

Oliver Sacks is a wonderful writer. This book of stories about his patients is written with great understanding and compassion. His analytical skills abound. His many interests also are highlighted in many of the tales. I've enjoyed all the books I have read by this very talented man.

Famed scientist Oliver Sacks is a treasure. He's currently battling a life-threatening illness and has written candidly about his struggles.
His essays and writings on the human mind are not to be missed. Of all his fascinating books, this is my favorite.

An interesting book that explained, as far as can be, the phenomena of an idiot savant being able to "add" numbers in the head of impossible length. The author is empathetic and that makes it even better. He mentioned several other books, among them "The Door in The Wall" which I downloaded and enjoyed tremendously.

This book was quite interesting but I found it to be a little outdated. Some of the ailments featured have been found to have other causes other than the excuses given here. The positive side of this book was it's amazing what brain problems can do to you, it can affect you in ways you would never imagine.

Anyone who thinks this book is "cold and unfeeling" either didn't take the time to read it or can't read. At heart the book is a meditation on what it means to be human. Do our brains define us, or our souls? Sacks doesn't find the people "amusing," though certainly there is some warmth in humor and some of the conditions of the patients are bizarre. As in his encounter with Rebecca, whom he saw at first as the sum total of her deficits, he finds that these patients challenge him to see them as more than their neurological disorders.

This is not light reading. It is a neurologists description of a variety of brain abnormalities and what they cause. It offered me an excellent explanation of what the author of "Proof of Heaven" was describing as he went through his coma. It also describes many patients I have seen. It is well written but somewhat dated.

Endlessly fascinating series of essays about the incredible variety of mental illnesses or deficiencies or phenomenon experienced by a gifted, gracious practitioner. The level of technical vocabulary about these mental illnesses sometimes made me stumble, but this is a truly absorbing book, with a deep sense of humanity beyond just a grotesque voyeurism that it could have fallen into.

Oliver Sacks is a beautiful writer whose humanism emanates from every page. He examines these human beings as such, and not in the disinterested, cold, and distanced way in which non-fiction writers typically write about those who are afflicted with mental disorders. This book will bring both tears of compassion and bursts of sublime amazement. Especially interesting to anyone interested in neurology, neuroscience, or philosophy of mind.

This is such an enjoyable book but it is extremely interesting content. I don't want to give it away but whether you are studying the brain, or psychology, or just want a unique book to read this is great for all those interests.

I was recommended this book by my girlfriend, a Doctor, after i read some pathology books and enjoyed them. I didn't enjoy this as much, i found it more technical that the easy going pathology books i had read. I did get a good understanding and enjoyed the insight into the mini stories in the book but i felt it getting harder and harder to stay interested as the book went on.

What a surprise to see the context of the stories written by Oliver Sacks in 1970. I was expecting short stories written by an author whose famous story became a movie staring Robin Williams. He writes from the experiences of an MD with conclusions from his treatments, observations, and diagnosis of patients with varying levels of neurological illnesses. MY first impression of the stories was negative in a quick glance thru. The mindset had to change. . As I read further, the author's style showed in the thoroughness with which his observation and medical expertise explained the physical bases for so many neurological symptoms presented by his clients. He uses documented author's works that have a bearing on damaged minds and explain symptoms relating to injured brain areas. He uses tools available to aid in the diagnosis and prognosis of brain damage. Very interesting conclusion: A relatively non-technical book, but engaging in a fluid writing style that makes people and their conditions understandable and makes me appreciate the author. Well done. Recommended.

Touching stories about people who fall into neurological difficulties. Story is fluent, interesting, told from a very respecting point of view to the patient. So sad that Oliver Sacks is not with us anymore.

This book is written in a very conversational tone that makes it easy to understand neurological concepts without feeling overwhelmed or baffled. The stories in the book are funny, beautiful, tragic and inspiring.

It's rather specialist book for people who like reading about the bizarre, in this case the odd delusions that some of us suffer from. I'll go back to it - it is Oliver Sacks and he's pretty unforgettable - but I haven't finished it yet.

I found this repetitive, complex, and the author was not able to bring out clearly that the question is: who are you as a human if your mind doesn't function as it should. Good concept/information but without the weight it should carry.

This is a well written, lively introduction to the relationship between behaviors and brain damage. It is a classic by a noted clinical Neurologist. I had a copy that strayed so I got another copy. I am a neuroscientist but I still wanted to have copy on my bookshelf.

This book, while very interesting, is very hard to read unless you are a student of neurology or psychology. There are numerous references to other sources, which upon further investigation, clarified some of the confusion I felt when reading this book. The title makes it seem like a fun book. It's a college level text, not light reading!