Oliver Sacks is not a common writer but English neurologist and psychiatrist as well. As far as I know “The man who mistook
his wife for a hat” is his the only book so far. This is also the only book about insanity I know which tells stories of mentally ill people in such a warm and sensitive way. Although the main theme of the book are serious neurological diseases, described in rather detailed way, it does not frighten with scary, medical expressions. The book, published by Simon & Schuster , is a compilation of magazine articles and case histories gathered by the author during his long medical career. Each chapter introduces one patient with his/her unusual, complex problem which mainly consist in the deficit, or loss, of neurological function. Dr Sacks tells the stories paying special attention to showing real human nature even if it is distorted by mental illness. His deeply humanistic approach to patients results in tender dealing with them and relentless attempts to bring these people to normal life by cooperating and talking to patients. Such an attitude seems to be rare among doctors ( especially psychiatrists ) who driven by willingness to help often forget about man and treat him/her as another subject of research. Genuine stories written by life and just scribbled by Dr Sacks reveal very truth about human being, that even seriously disabled people with severe malfunctions of right hemisphere of a brain may be valuable and interesting people. The book not only tells how mentally ill people cope with their problems, but also disclose how harsh these problems might be.
Normal man does not even realize how grateful he should be that his brain works properly. We, I mean normal people, are not aware how strange it is to see only the right part of the world, for example. Dr Oliver depicts a woman who cannot perceive one side of her body at all, even when presented with a mirror.
It is difficult to imagine such a situation but while eating Mrs. S. takes the food only from right part of the plate. When she wants to eat more she has to turn her plate till she sees the quarter of her meal and again if still hungry she moves the plate so she is able to spot one eight of the meal.
Other interesting story explains the meaning of the title of the book. Dr. P, musician and conductor suffers from a neurological abnormality that makes him identify items in a schematic sense, with no overall recognition. He looks for obvious details while identifying an object, such as the five protrusion of a glove, hardly recognizing the glove itself and what is used for. Once he got dressed he grasped head of his wife instead of the hat. Dr. P. was immersed in a world of lifeless abstractions and did not have a real visual world. Referring to things only on the right side or in a right-sided manner, implied his loss of use within the left section of the brain. However his visualization of schemata was preserved. By making music, the study he had spent his life on, he could use his music to help him convey images for recognition or to allow him to continue through an action. For example, every activity he performed he had to associate with certain melody, otherwise he felt lost and was not able to move on.
It may be regarded as a warning for the drunkards but also pictures how little attention we pay to our memory and its importance in creating sense of identity. Jimmie G. is a middle aged man who can remember his life in great clarity and detail up to a certain point - the end of World War II. After this he can not remember anything that has happened and he can not remember events that took place five minutes ago. He still believes he is twenty years old (the age he was when the war ended). Although he recognizes the face of an older man when he looks in the mirror, in just a few minutes he forgets that he ever did so. He is very intelligent and not at all retarded but only has the knowledge that he gained while being in high school and while he worked as a mariner, for the navy. If he is taught anything new, he forgets it almost instantly. Dr Sacks diagnoses his condition as “Korsakov's disorder”, brought on by erosion of some brain structures caused by an alcoholism. Isn’t it tragic not to remember anything that has happened just minute ago?
The author tells stories of so called “idiot savants” – people who although mentally handicapped with IQ around 60, are enriched with huge memory we cannot even measure or other supernatural abilities. Many of them are able to recite phone book of New phone book of New York. Some of them can’t tell how much 2+2 is but can tell what day of the week was on the third of July 1293.
I surely encourage anybody to read this book. Although such words like ”suberabundances of function”,” agnosia”, “deficiency” may confuse from time to time generally speaking it is not difficult to read because of clear descriptions and lively language. I strongly recommend this book to everyone who would like to read about odd complexity of human mind.