The Mind's Eye

I hesitated between three and four stars, but decided to give it four. I have read everything Oliver Sacks has ever written, and _Seeing Voices_ is one of my favorite books. However, I found this book less engaging than nearly all of his previous works. I enjoyed the new case studies, but I felt somehow that I had already read the same information in his previous books. The exception to this is his first-person narrative of his own experience with his changing sight, which was a somewhat jarring stylistic departure from the rest of the book, but very rich content-wise. I was very excited to see this book come out, but now that I've finished it, I miss books like _The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat_ and _The Anthropologist on Mars_. That said, though, for someone who, unlike me, hasn't spent the last five years reading every popular neuroscience/psychology book available, the case studies (and his exploration of vision in general) would probably be intriguing and unique.

Though I'd heard his name before, I became familiar with Oliver Sacks' work through his guest appearances on Radiolab. I always really enjoy his stories and his general sensibility. I enjoy the stories and general sensibility of this book, too, but it's been slooow reading, because it is a little dry. Not necessarily dry for books by neurologists, but not exactly pop-neurology either.

These stories are, however, fascinating and mysterious and wonderful. I think I would especially recommend this book if contemplation of vision and sight are somehow relevant to you right now, but I could also recommend it to anyone who enjoys explorations of the intersection between science and humanity.

A delightful book. A warm-hearted tour of what the brain does with the inputs of the eyes, what can go wrong, and how six personal stories can illuminate our understanding of visual perception. The easy tone is that of a white-bearded avuncular professor of neurology and practicing physician, for that is what Sacks is. He is also a lover of words and people, which explains how he produces these interesting readable books full of real case studies and real insight. Here we met a concert pianist who cannot read the score, a neurobiologist who sees in stereo late in life, Sacks face-blindness, a novelist who loses the meaning of letters, and in the last chapter the personal tale of Sacks losing part of his own visual system.

This is not a textbook, but any student of visual perception will learn from these in-depth case studies. This is a literate engaging book for anyone interested in gently learning a little about how we turn a couple of video signals from the eyes into a solid internal perception. Anyone who has enjoyed Sacks previous books will enjoy the new territories explored here. I hope you find this review helpful.

Oliver Sacks writes clearly and with empathy about people with unusual neurological afflictions. He counts himself among them, since he suffers from an inability to recognize people's faces. It is fascinating to realize the complex interplay between the brain, the eyes, and the environment that gives us our picture of the world. What I found most interesting in this book was the material on neuroplasticity and compensation--for example, how the brain tissue used for sight can take over a new function, and how people adapt to visual impairments. Although this book focuses on all that can go wrong with human perception, it is inspiring in describing how people are able to overcome obstacles.

Oliver Sacks is a practicing neurologist and professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center. Sacks is the author of many best-selling books such as The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, The Island of the Colorblind, and Hallucinations. The Mind’s Eye is a collection of case studies that introduces us to people who have visual or perceptual problems that affect their everyday lives in strange and interesting ways. It also details Sack’s own difficulties with face blindness and cancer of the eye. Although the conditions that Sacks writes about are generally rather hindering to the patients’ daily lives, each case study ends somewhat hopefully due to each person’s adaptability. Despite their conditions, each patient was able to assimilate back into their daily lives to some degree and learn how to see the world from their altered perspectives.

The Mind’s Eye is a wonderful blend of neuroscience and storytelling. The way that Sacks writes about his patients allows the reader to feel as if he or she knows them personally. Although this book is about an array of neurological conditions, it refrains from having an overly clinical feel. Writing each case study in a story-like fashion makes this book an easy and engaging read— even for those who have no previous knowledge of the subject.

The addition of Sack’s own battle with cancer of the eye is another aspect that adds to the personal feel of the book. The journal entries and drawings that Sacks includes give a revealing look into his everyday struggles. Because Sacks himself has struggled with visual problems similar to his patients, it helps make Sacks more relatable to both his patients and his audience.

Part of what makes this book successful is the sense of hopefulness it instills. A book that describes such debilitating conditions could easily become depressing. However, Sacks instead focuses his attention on the adjustments his patients were able to make to improve their lives. Even though The Mind’s Eye seems as if it is about neurological conditions, at its core, it is much more about the amazing power of human adaptability. Each person’s story ends with ways that describe how the patient was able to overcome the symptoms of their conditions and continue to live successful and fulfilling lives.

Dr. Oliver Sacks is a general neurologist who works mostly in homes for older people. His earlier work, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, was well received. In this book Dr. Sacks focuses on the relationship between the brain and the eye. He does this by relating the medical and personal histories of a few patients who have difficulties with sight that are not caused by problems related to the eyes alone. He explores some unusual situations such as people who can see perfectly well but cannot recognize the faces of people they know. In some cases the people learn how to adapt to their disability and are able to lead productive lives. Dr. Sacks also raises more fundamental questions such as how do we see and think.

This book will be of particular interest to medical personnel in the fields of vision and neurology and persons who have concerns about their own vision difficulties or those faced by others they know. It will not advise you on how to avoid such problems.

It is hard to give the book a rating because it is very valuable to some and not at all useful for others. For this reason I give it three stars, but the rating could be five stars or one star depending on your needs and interests. This rating, then, is not a reflection on the quality of the work, but rather the appeal that it may have to a general audience.

Oliver Sack's style is warm and engrossing, easy-to-read for those who don't enjoy the technical and overly scientific, but still detailed enough to be of interest to those that are more scientific. This one focuses on issues related to vision and perception.

As the chatty (and sometimes oversharing) neurologist guides, readers meet patients afflicted with a number of conditions from prosopagnosia (face-blindness, an inability to distinguish between faces and recognize familiar ones) to alexia (inability to recognize letters / read them) to a lack and regaining of stereoscopy (depth perception and 3 dimensional vision.) Though Sacks often identifies with the patients and describes similar moments during migraines or other short term problems, I was surprised that he used himself as a case study, describing his own loss of stereo vision in detail through sharing his journal and experiences.

Some will accuse Sacks of exploitation, and others will be uncomfortable with his level of sharing (e.g. his cannabis use) but overall, he fills a niche in contemporary publishing with his accessible tales. In learning about deficiencies and abnormalities, readers are exposed to the many intricacies of the brain.

Oliver Sacks' book, The Mind's Eye, is a collection of case studies, similar to many of his other books. He frequently references his earlier books, and it might be an advantage to be familiar with them before reading this one; I personally have not read An Anthropologist on Mars, which is referenced several times, and occasionally left me confused. This book is very different from his other books, though, in that it involves his own visual losses; there is a chapter concerning his congenital prosopagnosia, and, later, there is a chapter concerning his loss of the entire right side of his visual field due to cancer. Though he always seemed to have strong caring relationships with his patients, this particular book was more poignant in my opinion than some of the others due to including his own story, which was heartbreaking to read, as I couldn't help comparing his stories of coping with cancer with those of friends and family who have gone through the same ordeal.

"Sight Reading"

The first case study in this book is the story of a famous female concert pianist who suddenly found herself unable to read music. This difficulty was followed by further visual difficulties, including the inability to read text, though she had no trouble writing. She was diagnosed with a degenerative visual condition as she began to have difficulty recognizing faces and objects. She compensated by using color, shape, and audio cues to navigate the world around her, even being able to learn and arrange music after a single hearing. The case study manages to convey her sense of frustration as her condition worsened over a period of eleven years.

"Recalled to Life"

This case study is the story of a woman (Pat) who lost the ability to speak or to understand speech after a huge blood clot formed in the left hemisphere of her brain. This is called aphasia, and it is not only a loss of speech, but a loss of language; Sacks gives background information on aphasia for readers who are unfamiliar with such neurological disorders. Sacks suggests trying to include aphasic patients in activities that do not require language, saying, "The dull term `social rehabilitation' is sometimes used here, but really the patient (as Dickens might put it) is being `recalled to life.'" Pat learned to understand other people by observing their gestures and expressions, since she could not understand their words. She communicated with others by gestures, miming, and pointing to single words in a prepared book she carried. This case study seems more hopeful and uplifting, as Pat gradually came to terms with her disability and lived happily even with her communication issues.

"A Man of Letters"

This case study begins with a background on the complexity of the brain functions involved in reading and a summary history of their discovery. Howard Engel, a Canadian author, developed alexia (the inability to read) after a stroke. He was determined to read again, though he could not recognize even individual letters until months after his stroke. He was eventually able to read letter by letter and to infer words and sentences. (Interestingly, some bilingual people have strokes and lose to the ability to read one language but not the other.) Howard learned to read more quickly by tracing letters with his hands and his tongue, so that he was replacing reading with a sort of writing. He was able to use his experience to plot and write a new book. "`The problems never went away,' Howard writes, `but I became cleverer at solving them.'"

"Face-Blind"

This chapter is the story of Oliver Sacks himself, detailing his difficulty recognizing faces and places, even if they are familiar. His form of prosopagnosia (the inability to recognize faces) seems to be familial, as one of his brothers exhibits the same difficulties. Sacks details the history of understanding the brain's visual functions and that of the discovery that faces occupy an entirely different perceptual category from other objects. The tone as Sacks describes his own difficulties is far more comical than that of the other stories in the book. This chapter also gives far more of the science underlying the disorder than previous chapters of the book. Congenital prosopagnosia is more common than acquired prosopagnosia after some form of brain damage. This may be due to those with congenital prosopagnosia not even recognizing it as a problem.

"Stereo Sue"

This chapter begins with a summary of the history of the scientific examination of depth perception, with an emphasis on stereo vision (each eye sees a slightly different image). Sacks then writes of temporary losses of stereo vision and how the world appears flat and two-dimensional. There is a long tangent in this chapter about stereoscopic photography and Sacks' own interest in the topic is abundantly clear. Sacks tells the story of a woman who did not develop stereo vision in early childhood but gained it later in life. Her description of seeing the world with stereo vision is rather moving, as she is really seeing the world around her as it is for the first time.

"Persistence of Vision"

This chapter is written as a journal, detailing Sacks' own loss of the right side of his visual field due to an ocular melanoma. His fear is almost tangible when you read about the diagnosis and the days immediately following; it is a difficult chapter to read. "I wake from a nightmare . . . I know that . . . I am in the best possible hands, but I feel a terrified child, a child screaming for help, inside me." Sacks lost central vision in his right eye, which meant that he lost much of his stereo vision as well; it is suddenly much clearer why he emphasized his interest in stereoscopic photography in the last chapter.

"The Mind's Eye"

The conclusion of this book begins with an overview of the different ways in which people who lose their sight after childhood learn to cope with blindness. One man lost all virtual imagery and allowed his other senses to take over, while other people used heightened visual imagination: one example of this was a man who constructed a virtual copy of the world and another was a woman with a more artistic visual imagination. The chapter then evolves into a discussion on the importance of mental imagery and its relation to thought. This conclusion highlights the question of how perception and sight are coupled and whether or not what we see is altered by our expectations and our visual imagery. It is an excellent ending to the book that raises many interesting philosophical questions about the nature of thinking, perceiving, and the importance of language.

I quite enjoyed the book. It's an interesting treatise on the coupling of vision and perception. There can be nothing physically wrong with the eyes, but perception is altered to the point where reading is impossible because the brain can no longer interpret the words. In Sacks' own case, there was nothing wrong with the brain, but the visual cortex acted in such a way as to cause hallucinations and to fill in a huge blind spot in his right eye's visual field. It's intriguing to me to note that this is a phenomenon that goes both ways. Additionally in the conclusion, almost as a throwaway, Sacks mentions the importance of language in visual perception, especially in blind people. I find it fascinating that visual descriptions can activate the visual cortex and enable a blind person to "see" the world around them, albeit as a virtual image, especially since I have almost no ability to visualize based off description.

"The Mind's Eye" beautifully illustrates the mystery and incredible powers of the mind in relation to vision. I was humbled to read how Dr. Sacks himself was in awe of how his patients and correspondents dealt with changes in their vision. Oftentimes, doctors present themselves as omniscient healers, when in fact, they and the scientific community have much left to explore about the way the brain and mind work and alter our way of experiencing life. In many of his chapters, he stresses how the brain is more plastic than previously thought. I didn't feel like I was reading a doctor's account of how the brain works, but rather the well-crafted words of a compassionate medical humanist intrigued about how we see and relate to the world. It wasn't a boring medical report written for clinicians, it was a book for people to marvel and learn about how others adapt to losing 3D vision, and the ability to read and recognize people and places. We are more powerful than we think.

As a strabismic (cross-eyed) person, I was moved by Sacks' chapters on strabismic Stereo Sue gaining 3D vision in her late 40s after living in a 2D world and his own account of losing vision in one eye, rendering him monocular and confined to the limitations of life in 2D.

Most people assume that visual problems primarily involve the eyes. The Mind's Eye is a fascinating look at the very complex connection between the eyes and the part of the mind associated with sight.

The book takes an in depth look at the lives of different people affected with visual problems - ranging from blindness caused by an industrial accident, to the author's own cancer in the retina, to loss of vision as a result of stroke or other problems affecting the visual part of the brain.

The stories are all unique and extremely interesting. For me (and I assume the average reader) you will learn a great deal more about the connection between the eyes and the visual part of the brain. You will also learn how the brain compensates and copes with the loss of vision. The brain is much more plastic than had been thought and does an outstanding job of compensating for loss of vision.

Not all people who are affected by loss of vision cope in the same manner. Some people maintain and actually increase their ability to visualize objects. Others totally lose their ability to visualize objects. While I believe that most people with healthy vision believe that the loss of vision would be like a death sentence, the book has countless examples of people who lead very successful lives despite their visual problems. It is fascinating the variety of ways people compensate for loss of vision and how the brain re-allocates it resources in this process.

This book will be an interesting read for those who have more than a casual interest in vision and visual problems/diseases. It is well written but unless you have some compelling reason for learning more about acute visual problems, you might not find the value in reading it.

I find such warmth in the way that Sacks writes about his patients. He is at once a physician and a student, equally driven by his compassion for people and by a desire to make sense of the disabilities they endure. His writing here offers lessons for doctors, teachers, and researchers, as well as for all of us as we try to live our lives and learn to care for those in need.

I've not read any of Sacks' other books, and what little I know of him primarily comes from having watched the movie version of his book, Awakenings. The Mind's Eye compels me to read his other work. I highly recommend it.

Dr. Sacks has an extraordinary ability to share his fascination with the human brain in an accessible way. As in "A Leg to Stand On", "The Mind's Eye" contains material from his own experience. Neurobiology made personal--never again to take facial recognition, stereoscopic vision, or the left half of one's visual field for granted.

What remarkable neurological powers we've been granted, and who better to illuminate the richness of the gift? There's little more satisfying in medical non-fiction that a book by Sacks.

The popular saying "what you see is what you get" implies that perception of vision is interchangeable amongst all people. However, there are people who must navigate the world and communicate with others without this heavily relied sense of vision. Oliver Sacks is a physician, professor of neurology at NYU, and a best-selling author. Through his straightforward and smooth read entitled The Mind's Eye, Oliver Sacks discusses the puzzling concept of the loss of one sense by retelling stories of his patients as well as retelling his own story of vision loss due to cancer in the eye. Many of us imagine the loss of one of our senses to have a completely debilitating effect on our lives. Conversely, Sacks explains that the weakening of one sense can strengthen another sense. Those who suffer from blindness, for example, many times exhibit dominant senses of speech, smell, and hearing. In addition, many blind people become hyper-visual and are able to envision the world in a surprisingly rich way that those who have vision lack. Sacks provides valuable examples of people learning to compensate for their disabilities. As enjoyable as his stories are, I felt that his writing technique was verbose and repetitive.

Sacks organizes his book by dividing it into seven chapters, each with a different personal story. He begins by referencing letters that his patients have sent him. His first patient, Lilian, a concert pianist, begins to notice visual problems; she can no longer recognize or read her music. What was strange about her condition was that she could recognize letters individually but could not recognize words as a whole. Eventually, she is unable to recognize everyday objects, such as fruits and vegetables at the grocery store. Sacks noticed that Lilian was experiencing shrinkage in visual areas in both sides of the brain. Aside from her worsening condition, Lilian never lost the ability to play her music through memory. In this case, Sacks provides an example of the deterioration of recognition paired with the strengthening of memory. Sacks heavily focuses on the personal journeys and struggles of patients suffering from certain conditions. However, his only flaw is that although it is positive that he has such a close and personal connection with his patients, he seems to rely too much on detailed personal stories instead of providing more scientific background regarding the diseases. For example, Sacks expresses his constant concern for Lilian and describes her struggle with every activity she performs but lacks in explaining what exactly is going on in her brain. He does not explain what types of connections are lost or what specific structures may have been damaged that could lead to her memory problems.

Sacks next patient, Patricia, suffers from aphasia, an impairment of language ability. Pat suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage which led to her loss of speech. Despite her loss of speech, Pat developed an understanding for people by their gestures and expressions. She relied on these gestures and expressions for communication. I really enjoyed reading this chapter because Sacks emphasized that communication can be done without the reliance of speech. This chapter specifically illuminated the main idea of the brain's plasticity; other senses compensated for disabilities of another. Yet again, Sacks recounted his stories through elaborative and winding sequences of events which could have been shortened while still embedding a powerful message.

Another patient, Sue, had grown up cross-eyed, and because of this, she could only view the world with one eye at a time. As she grew older, it became gradually more difficult for her to see things far at a distance. Her doctor put a prism in one of her lenses to enhance her visual field. Sue was surprised to realize that she could see things three-dimensionally; she noted that the steering wheel in the car "popped out" as well as the leaves in a bush. After introducing Sue, Sacks furthers his findings on vision impairments with the involvement of his own story.

Incorporating his own personal struggle with cancer, Sacks explains how he experienced a blind spot in his right eye. Immediately, he went to the ophthalmologist who told him that he could either have a hematoma behind his retina, or it could be a tumor. This section was interesting because it revealed that even doctors themselves are uncertain about what their medical conditions are and are frightened by the thought of a deathly illness. Sacks found out that the blindness he was experiencing was, in fact, the cause of a tumor. He went through radiation, and although he initially showed signs of improvement, Sacks had a hemorrhage in the same eye, which resulted in a permanent loss of depth and loss of some peripheral vision in his eye. This section made the previous chapters in the book worthwhile. Sacks' concentration on personal struggles can be justifiable because he can relate to his patients. His understanding of disabilities is great due to his own condition; he truly shows a sense of empathy for his patients.

The main idea of this book is that although restrictions of senses may seem weakening, it can result in the strengthening of other senses. For example, Sacks discusses how blind people become hyper-visual; they are able to experience the world in a way that people with vision lack. They manage to walk and maneuver without light because they do not rely on light for vision. Since the blind to not rely on vision, their sense of creativity and description of objects is more advanced. We are learning new things about the brain all the time. Oliver Sacks stresses the idea of the brain's ability to compensate; people make up for what they lose by developing stronger senses for what they do have. In this way, the brain is overcoming disability. By using different case studies, Oliver Sacks exhibits the different disabilities of the senses which can be traced back to the brain.

A background or understanding in neuroscience is not required in order to read this book. A basic understanding of the brain and functions may be helpful prior to reading, for example, knowing that the occipital lobe is responsible for vision. Damage to this lobe can be related to vision impairments. Sacks does spend a little time talking about the anatomy of the brain in relation to its functions. For instance, Sacks talks about how the eye's blind spot is a product of the deficiency of photoreceptors in the region of the retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye. However, his information is not intended for neuroscience whizzes; this book is meant to be an attention-grabbing but straightforward read.

I would recommend this book to those interested in neuroscience at the beginner's level. Although the information is valuable, it only skims basic concepts of neuroscience. This book may not be of interest to those who are looking to delve deeper into the reasons of neurological functions and concepts. For this reason, I do not give it a full five stars. While fascinating, it lacks in explanation of anatomical structures in the brain being affected in regards to each disorder he discusses. Sacks uses this book to relate to readers on a personal level, specifically by sharing his own struggle with eye cancer. The Mind's Eye reveals the intricacy of the brain in regards to our senses. By examining enigmas of the brain's ability to adapt and compensate for our inadequacies, Sacks provides a different outlook on seeing the world through another person's eyes, or at times, mind.

I have enjoyed every Oliver Sacks book I have read and this is no exception. If you don't know who Oliver Sacks is he is a neurologist who studies unusual cases and is able to share those cases in ways that a non scientist can understand. In this book he discussions vision. Vision is more than just what your eye does and sees buy how your brain "sees" or understands what you see. There are so many crazy problems that can happen to your brain and it is amazing how it adapts. The most interesting thing about this book to me was how Sacks writes about his own visual problems. If you have never read Sacks before this will be totally fascinating for you. If you have you will find this is similar to his other works. I would recommend Island of the Color Blind or the Man who mistook his wife for a hat -- if you are interested in Oliver Sacks books.

I always enjoy Sacks' books. I like the way he tells clinical tales with a human touch. I get the feeling he sees his patients as real people rather than simply as patients. I also like the way he allows laypeople to understand complex neurological problems. In this particular book, Sacks even tells of his own experiences with vision loss.

The frequent footnotes can be a little distracting. But other than that, I find his tales compassionate and fascinating.

Oliver Sacks commandeers his audience in the highly engaging The Mind's Eye, a collection of case studies examining the neurophysical process of seeing. He paints each case vividly and entertainingly so that the reader lunges on and on through the book until s/he has inexplicably arrived at its close. Sacks is a master story-teller and intellectual provocateur who manages to use his own personal tragedies as a profound study of the human brain.

Dr Oliver Sacks would be a great person to have next to you on a long flight.A man who find everything endlessly fascinating now turns to vision, memory, sight, facial recognition, the curious case of someone suffering a debilitating stroke who could no longer read but could still write,and even The eminent Dr Sacks himself, who cannot recognize faces[even in a humorous episode,his own] Sacks writes beautifully, keeps your interest, and never fails to surprise. Another brilliant effort...hugely recommended

The book has 3 distinct sections - case studies, Dr Sacks' personal experience and final neurological explanations. The case studies probably have "more of the same" flavor, whereas the personal experience is described in an amazingly detached way. The neurological explanations have significant simplifications of clinical terms & previous research, written in a prose that could make a wonderful audio book.
Even for a visual reader like me (who prefers a diagram over 100 words), the descriptions have been engaging with a wondrous touch to it.
Above all, the key point that distinguishes this book is the humanity of the visually challenged & the optimistic tone. Truly inspiring..

If you are really short of time, pick the last chapter (same as title)

In this book, Oliver Sacks explores the neurobiology of vision through case histories of people who have acquired visual disturbances due to brain disorders or injuries. There is a woman who loses the ability to read (first music, then words, then the impairment expands to having problems recognizing an increasing number of objects), a woman who lacks stereovision until she suddenly acquires it in middle age, and others. Sacks provides vivid mapping of the ways in which these problems manifest themselves in the lives of his patients, as well as historical and medical perspectives on the evolving understanding of how the mind processes visual information.

Later in the book, Sacks turns to a discussion of his own face blindess, and an account of his experience with a tumor in his right eye and its effects on his vision. For some reason, I found the autobiographical sections of the book much less compelling than the case histories. Overall, though the book is an interesting read.

Excellent. The cover of the book became more meaningful to me after I read it. Often poignant, sometimes bittersweet, frequently uplifting, these essays are humanist without being sentimental, scientific without being too esoteric or technical. I always recommend Oliver Sacks, and if you're encountering him for the first time, I think this is a good starting volume.

A spectacular book! Even if you are not a doctor / patient of neurology, even if you are not even an aficionado of science... just from the human angle, it's beautiful! And if you have a scientific inclination, this will be a most enthralling read!

Oliver Sacks' Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood is one of my all-time favorites. It provides an interesting walk though science through the eyes of a child. It is both enlightening and charming... truly a rare breed.

Unfortunatley, "The Mind's Eye" is quite different and while it does offer some of the charm - it is much less readable. In truth, it requires a fairly large degree of prior knowledge in neurology in order for it to make sense. This makes the reading much more academic, and in my case, tedious.

I am sure that many people will enjoy "The Mind's Eye" but it may be restricted more to the medical community and not the average reader. This is unfortunate, because the stories offered by Dr. Sacks are interesting, but the level of detail is just too deep. An example was the discussion on "Face Blindness" which to me is a fascinating topic (my wife seems to think that I may suffer from this disorder!), but withing 5 pages I have a hard time following the technical detail of the discussion.

Final Verdict - Probably very interesting for the medical community, but it may be a tough read for common Joe.

2 1/2 Stars

Oliver Sacks is a very good author when it comes to making the unusual comprehensible to the layperson. His essays on various visual anomalies are interesting, comprehensive, and well-documented. Sometimes the discussion of anatomical details is more than I want to read and/or can understand. Readers who have enjoyed his other works will not be surprised at his approaches to these essays. He occasionally refers to previous works, but the references are always timely and appropriate, not merely excuses to sell his stuff. I enjoyed the book.

The books by Oliver Sacks are always a pleasure to read, easy and informative. In this one, he share his own experiences with his expertise and humility. His language is easy to understand and his style makes his story and cases interesting and easy to relate to. He is a great teacher who can make difficult topics intereting.

The best thing about this book was that it was orange. Other than that it reads like a banal personal diary or a breathless dictionary of visual-neural maladies without much explanation. He is trying to share the wonders of the brain to his readers without troubling them with the scientific or philosophical details. This approach doesn't do it for me. Other than that, he strikes me as a self-absorbed priveleged egotist whose patients always seem to be successful artists/musicians/writers. He's like Donald Trump - he plays himself on TV. I gave him two stars instead of one because his prose is reasonably good and the organization is coherent (and because the book isn't very long).

I can't say I've read ALL of Oliver Sacks' books, but I've read enough to know that this fits right in with them all. Insightful and enlightening, these stories about people who have lost one of their senses and how they adapt and deal are brilliantly retold and a pleasure to read.

Dr. Oliver Sacks has created yet another fascinating book on the mind, perception from the prospective of a neurologist, philosopher and poet. He takes the reader on a journey through some of his patient case studies and his personal challenges of losing sight. His compelling stories touch upon what it is to be human. Great read.

Like other Sacks' books that I've read, this one has some interesting anecdotes/cases, interspersed with a lot of blah-blah-blah filler. It's OK unless you have something better to do/read. Not exactly riviting.

Mind's Eye is a journey into neuro- psychology that brings to life its key points by making case studies 3 dimensional. Each person discusses behavior, anxiety, and an internal world that are separate and indivisible. The writing flows with details that are the story.

This book is inspiring. It is realistic, stating factually people's hopes, struggles and creative solutions as they face struggles with their vision. It brings forth remarkable examples of determination. The level of detail with which Dr. Saks explores each case is fascinating. We are given the opportunity to see deep into the richness of our powers of adaptation, resilience, and soul as human beings.

I love the case studies in this book. They show how different perceptions really are and how we take for granted how we see things and assume everyone else sees the same way. The other books by Saks are also very good, as are the Gladwell books.

Oliver Sacks has a gift for tackling complex neurological conditions and writing about them with compassion. There are many summaries here of the book, so I will not add to them. Suffice it to say that Sacks has done it again: a moving and fascinating account that blends neurology and philosophy.

an amazing book that goes into the depths of the complex mind and how so many things can go wrong. i mean being able to write and not read is just mind boggling. i recommend this book to anyone that doubts how powerful but weak at moments the mind is.

I take it as axiomatic that everybody, even the most intelligent person, has a few points to communicate, rather than an infinite supply. What Oliver Sacks has, however, is a seemingly-infinite number of stories to tell.

Are these less interesting stories than his earlier books? I wouldn't attempt to judge that. But, as much as I admire what he's done and written, I do feel like this is more of the same.

If you're not familiar with his other books, this one will be fascinating.

I've read one of Sack's first book, 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat', primarily because of the catchy title. It wasn't as good as I had hoped; I had expected a humorous book and I instead found a book full of sad tales; people who are losing their minds.

'The Mind's Eye' is more of the same. Here we read about a woman who is a marvelous pianist; she is slowly losing her mind; Dr. Sacks is on hand to chronicle the sad, sad tale. Then we read about a woman who has a stroke. The tale teases us by reminding us of cases where people have lost the ability to communicate after serious strokes. Her daughters are wonderfully dedicated and money is no problem. Still, the woman suffers tremendous damage to her brain, and is but a shadow of her former self.

On and on it goes. Dr. Sacks can cluck wisely and slowly shake his head at the sad, pathetic cases he sees.

It's almost cruel, this obsession with hopeless and grim tales of loss and more loss. I'd much prefer tales with more hopeful endings, or some reports of medical progress to mitigate the inexorable decline in mental prowess that strikes seemingly all of us. Nope, not here!

I found the book (and his previous best-seller, 'The Man...') grim and depressing. There is only so much I want to read about how many ways one can suffer brain damage, and live with much reduced circumstances. I (obviously) did not like it.

Update: It seems as though Dr. Sacks has a lot of fans. Good for him. I was unaware of Dr. Sack's own medical condition. In any case, I did not enjoy reading this book and put it down after about 75 pages.