Aneesha Pathak is a fifteen-year-old student from New Jersey who cherishes time spent with her friends and family and finds joy in dancing. She developed a deep interest in psychology by participating in the Special Olympics program Play Unified in 8th grade.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales is a collection of essays written by Oliver Sacks during his fifty years spent researching and treating people with fascinating neurological conditions. Each essay describes a person living with a unique brain disorder, showing how their minds work in unusual but interesting and significant ways. The book is divided into four sections, each focused on a phase of brain function related to different components and processes of the nervous system.
The first section, “Losses,” highlights the word “deficit”: an impairment or incapacity of a neurological function such as speech, language, memory, etc. One of the most insightful stories in this section is “Hands.” Madeleine J. has cerebral palsy, which generally doesn’t affect hands. However, in her case, her hands did not function properly. She compares them to “Useless godforsaken lumps of dough – they don’t even feel part of me” (Sacks 70). However, as Madeleine trains herself to sculpt and feel objects, her hands begin to work, until she gains complete control over them in her adulthood. Sacks depicts her determination and perseverance as she miraculously fights her illness and regains the use of her hands.
In the second section, “Excesses,” Sacks emphasizes neurological disorders that involve excess brain activity. The essay I found most compelling in this section is “A Matter of Identity.” Sacks speaks to a man with Korsakoff’s Syndrome, a condition that causes him to remember only small moments from different parts of his life at a time, which in turn leads him to identify himself as multiple distinct people in the span of one conversation. The truth is, he has no true, singular identity because his memory barely extends past a few seconds, preventing him from understanding who he is as a person. This condition creates a sense of confusion and instability in his life, revealing how brain disorders can affect more than just perception and behavior.
In the third section, “Transports,” Sacks describes peoples’ states of altered perception and memory. One of the most interesting stories in this section is “Incontinent Nostalgia,” which discusses an elderly woman with Parkinson's. Her condition inhibits dopamine, which is released when we engage in pleasurable activities and, among other things, motivates and rewards us. She uses L-Dopa to compensate for her lack of dopamine and treat her disease, allowing her to feel like a young woman again as she experiences immense nostalgia while also feeling energetic and lively. Sacks discovered that people who used L-Dopa as treatment would often experience sudden flashbacks flooding their minds, which created novel experiences for those on the drug.
Finally, Sacks illustrates the many other unique cognitive abilities and intellectual disabilities in “The World of the Simple,” his final section in this book. All four of these narratives explore case histories of patients who struggle with basic tasks and face intellectual difficulties, yet who are extremely talented in what appear to be difficult fields. For example, a pair of twins with autism struggle with fundamental activities like basic self-care,
communication, and even simple arithmetic. However, they display extraordinary memorization abilities: they can calculate any day of the week if given a date in history, past or future, and can even remember long numbers or recall the weather on any day of their lives.
Other patients in these essays are artistically talented regardless of their neurological disabilities. Through such case histories, this section reinforces the idea that people with neurological disorders can be unique, intelligent and creative in their own ways, reminding readers that talent can appear in different and unexpected forms.
Ultimately, Sacks essays prove eye-opening for readers, who are encouraged to empathize with people who view the world in different ways. Rather than focusing specifically on their illnesses, Sacks concentrates on how each person lives their life with their conditions and is able to perceive their surroundings in a unique way, highlighting the mysteries of the human brain. This approach makes the book even more compelling, as Sacks wrote with compassion and understanding, helping readers see the humanity that lies behind every medical case.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales is a collection of essays written by Oliver Sacks during his fifty years spent researching and treating people with fascinating neurological conditions. Each essay describes a person living with a unique brain disorder, showing how their minds work in unusual but interesting and significant ways. The book is divided into four sections, each focused on a phase of brain function related to different components and processes of the nervous system.
The first section, “Losses,” highlights the word “deficit”: an impairment or incapacity of a neurological function such as speech, language, memory, etc. One of the most insightful stories in this section is “Hands.” Madeleine J. has cerebral palsy, which generally doesn’t affect hands. However, in her case, her hands did not function properly. She compares them to “Useless godforsaken lumps of dough – they don’t even feel part of me” (Sacks 70). However, as Madeleine trains herself to sculpt and feel objects, her hands begin to work, until she gains complete control over them in her adulthood. Sacks depicts her determination and perseverance as she miraculously fights her illness and regains the use of her hands.
In the second section, “Excesses,” Sacks emphasizes neurological disorders that involve excess brain activity. The essay I found most compelling in this section is “A Matter of Identity.” Sacks speaks to a man with Korsakoff’s Syndrome, a condition that causes him to remember only small moments from different parts of his life at a time, which in turn leads him to identify himself as multiple distinct people in the span of one conversation. The truth is, he has no true, singular identity because his memory barely extends past a few seconds, preventing him from understanding who he is as a person. This condition creates a sense of confusion and instability in his life, revealing how brain disorders can affect more than just perception and behavior.
In the third section, “Transports,” Sacks describes peoples’ states of altered perception and memory. One of the most interesting stories in this section is “Incontinent Nostalgia,” which discusses an elderly woman with Parkinson's. Her condition inhibits dopamine, which is released when we engage in pleasurable activities and, among other things, motivates and rewards us. She uses L-Dopa to compensate for her lack of dopamine and treat her disease, allowing her to feel like a young woman again as she experiences immense nostalgia while also feeling energetic and lively. Sacks discovered that people who used L-Dopa as treatment would often experience sudden flashbacks flooding their minds, which created novel experiences for those on the drug.
Finally, Sacks illustrates the many other unique cognitive abilities and intellectual disabilities in “The World of the Simple,” his final section in this book. All four of these narratives explore case histories of patients who struggle with basic tasks and face intellectual difficulties, yet who are extremely talented in what appear to be difficult fields. For example, a pair of twins with autism struggle with fundamental activities like basic self-care,
communication, and even simple arithmetic. However, they display extraordinary memorization abilities: they can calculate any day of the week if given a date in history, past or future, and can even remember long numbers or recall the weather on any day of their lives.
Other patients in these essays are artistically talented regardless of their neurological disabilities. Through such case histories, this section reinforces the idea that people with neurological disorders can be unique, intelligent and creative in their own ways, reminding readers that talent can appear in different and unexpected forms.
Ultimately, Sacks essays prove eye-opening for readers, who are encouraged to empathize with people who view the world in different ways. Rather than focusing specifically on their illnesses, Sacks concentrates on how each person lives their life with their conditions and is able to perceive their surroundings in a unique way, highlighting the mysteries of the human brain. This approach makes the book even more compelling, as Sacks wrote with compassion and understanding, helping readers see the humanity that lies behind every medical case.
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