An Anthropologist on Mars - Essay Example

An Anthropologist on Mars: "The Last Hippie" The last Hippie is the narration of Dr. Oliver Sacks describing a life of a young man, Greg who grew up in New York City. The story outlines the hard life the man when through depicting the actual cultural life that that described the American society of the late 1960s(Glenn, In Glenn, and In Gray, 2014). Greg meditates on his youthful movement experience that shows that he moved from the village to the city where he attends to several live performances including that of a poet, Allen Ginsberg. Greg also became obsessed with the music “of the Dead (Sacks, 2012).” Despite being a person characterized with old age, he later learn ways of the new age, and by joining Hare Krishnas, his devotion deepens. As he dwells in town, his communication with his family members deteriorates; therefore, his family could have not known is health situation. Up to this point, one wonders why a family member may be far away from home for such a long time without anyone taking a step of visiting him to know his location (Glenn, In Glenn, & In Gray, 2014). In other words, it could have been natural for the family members or close friends to Greg to have moved down to New York City to determine his location in that if there may be any unfortunate event or total lack of communication of the party away from the family, it could have been easy to trace him for help. Since this seemed not to have been the situation until very late when Greg’s health had deteriorated too much and other deaths at home, it is tempting to say that the Greg’s society was not a caring society (Sacks, 2012). This society was and individual for him/ herself and fate determined the future of everyone. It’s noted that Greg’s family only followed in New Orleans. At this point, Greg was completely blind and was suffering from intense cognitive impairment (Glenn, In Glenn, & In Gray, 2014). Other than sight, Greg was suffering from brain disorder fronted by damage of his frontal lobes. Benign tumor grew in his brain unattended. This condition affected his memories; however, he could remember everything that occurred in his youthful ‘60s. Following the brain damage, Greg could only remember the past but could not create any new things and events in his memories (Sacks, 2012). Therefore, at his present live, he comfortably lived in his past. The way Greg mental illness came to being also shows how the society never carded for the wellbeing of others. Having moved in New York and later in New Orleans, it is pretty obvious that Greg made new friends. Therefore, if the society could have been caring and mindful of others, Greg’s cities friends could have taken him to any correction facility for medical treatment including therapy. Additionally, what form of caring can be learned from Greg’s family members who only visit or look for him when all seems to be worse and irreversible in Greg’s health? Everything now seemed to Greg has nothing and all he was told could not sink into his memories (Glenn, In Glenn, & In Gray, 2014). All that he used to loved appeared nothing or of no value to him. He music he was font of seems meaningless to him since they sounded new to him and he could not hold them any longer in his memory (Sacks, 2012). Greg’s personality was damaged at an early age that he could have been assisted to recover to normalcy. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that everyone at some point in life may suffer frontal lobes damage. The damage usually makes an individual to be treated differently and some times, harshly by the society. For instance, according to the case, We long for a holiday from our frontal lobes, a Dyonisiac fiesta of sense and impulse. That this is a need of our constrained, civilized, hyperfrontal nature has been recognized in every time and culture. All of us need to take a little holiday from out frontal lobes—the tragedy is when, through grave illness or injury, there is no return from the holiday, as or with Greg (Sacks, 2012). However, such kind of treatments should not be the case; hence, the society should provide proper care and possible corrective measures to the victim. According to Sacks, it is rare that people recover for sufferings prompted by the damage of frontal lobes. In other words, the conditions like what Greg is suffering is permanent (Sacks, 2012); thus, these person should be provided for proper care since it is not their own creation but their conditions are prompted by factors they could have not avoided. In addition, the Greg story shows how the society separated or denied Greg important events in life that he could have been part of. For instance, Greg’s father died without anyone contacting Greg to let him know of such important loss even if he could have not attended. According to Sacks, Greg did not mourn or showed any emotion distress most probably because of his medical condition. Sacks noted that, Mourning requires that one hold the sense of loss in one’s mind, and it was far from clear to me that Greg could do this. One might indeed tell him that his father had died, again and again. And every time it would come as something shocking and new and cause immeasurable distress. But then, in a few minutes, he would forget and be cheerful again, and was so prevented from going through the work of grief, the mourning (Sacks, 2012). With this contribution, could Sacks be implying that Greg’s mental condition could have been to his advantage at some point or life events? Loss of people so dear to use especially the close family members is something that cannot be taken easily (Glenn, In Glenn, & In Gray, 2014). In other words, such loss particularly the death of a parent usually leads to emotional distress that never affected Greg. According to Sacks, Greg’s condition made him to forget the death of his father frequently and he never got shocked of such news; therefore, he never grieved him (Sacks, 2012). Could this have been possible? It is noted that he learned new events even if such were not stored in his memory; hence, the immediate news of the death of his father could have shocked him, even if it could have been for hours. He could have mourned even if it could have been for seconds before forgetting the situation. Notably, the Greg’s story well depicts the transformation that very society usually experience. In this case, Greg’s society transformed from uncaring to caring society. In the beginning of the story, it seemed that Greg’s life and endeavors never mattered to anyone but himself that is why nobody seemed to have been bothering with the life he lived for years while away from home (Glenn, In Glenn, and In Gray, 2014). However, after noting that he is one of their own and he should be taken care of like the rest, regardless of his medical condition, they look for him and informed him of all that had happened when he was away. This made him to achieve perceptual constancy that enabled him to correlate to different appearances. This nature of caring made him transform his life particularly during the first month (Sacks, 2012). Despite everything in current life of Greg seemed complex, the society or the care takers endured. This is an indication that Greg was accepted regardless of his dilapidated state of being. This is what family and societies should ever offer to its constituent since medical conditionals are never individual’s creation but comes by accident. References Glenn, C., In Glenn, C., & In Gray, L. S. (2014). The Writers Harbrace handbook, brief. Sacks, O. W. (2012). An anthropologist on Mars: Seven paradoxical tales. New York: Knopf. Read More