The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks - Book Report/Review Example

Running Head: BOOK REVIEW Oliver Sacks’ “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” Book Review By University name City, State Date Oliver Sacks’ “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” Book Review The medical disciplines of neurology and biology can offer mountains of knowledge and wisdom when viewed from philosophical, intelligent, and considerate points of view. Author Oliver Sacks uses all of these points of view in his 2011 edition of “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.” The book has a non-imposing style of narration that Sacks uses to present the procedure of science to a general audience. The following paper is a discussion and analysis the book’s themes, arguments, messages, settings, manifestations, concepts, relevance, data, perspective, legacies, and relationships made and realized by Sacks with his individual past, as well as his patients. Forgetting one’s self is the main theme discussed by Sacks in the book (Sacks, 2011, p. 61). In the preface, Sacks says that he wishes to introduce his audience to a set of narratives and not case studies. Sacks evokes a crucial element numerous psychological patients are deprived of by showing his patients’ lives in narration form. This element is the self, which begs the audience to question what deprives a patient of his or her self. In the case studies provided, the likely “robbers” of the self are the disorder and the very healthcare system that claims to assist patients (Sacks, 2011, p. 27). Normally, case studies do not refer to people’s individualisms but rather lower them to statistics. Sacks could have grouped his patients into numbers in line with shared symptoms, medication plans, or outcomes. Instead, Sacks appeals to his patient’s individualism to discuss the source of their forgetfulness and possibly discover what deprived them of their selves. The appearance of neurobiological concepts like proprioception, retrograde amnesia, and pithed in nonfiction is another theme in Sacks’ work (Rahmawati, 2009). Proprioception is the sense that monitors physical movement unconsciously. Largely considered the “sixth sense,” proprioception was discovered Sherrington during the late nineteenth century (Sacks, 2011, p. 44). The movement of muscles and all limbs is proof of proprioception and people are not commonly aware of its existence or benefits. Sacks reveals this common unawareness in his book through the effects of his patients’ disorders. Amnesia retrograde wipes away a small or huge part of the memory of individual’s life. Similarly, Sacks uses amnesia retrograde to convey of its impact in reality as opposed to fiction (Rahmawati, 2009). The amnesia retrograde case study, Jimmie, cannot recall anything following the onset of the Second World War and Sacks uses nonfiction experience to determine how the disorder robs Jimmie of his self. While Sacks wrote “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” political and cultural happenings influenced his word choice and narrative structure (Anthony, 2010). Sacks leads his audience to know the key idea of the various concepts of neurological conditions by breaking down the narratives into four key sections (Sacks, 2011, p. 116). This sort of narrative structure explains the incidental moment of every patient in every case study, which I found truly appealing and enabling. I understood and appreciated how marvelous it is to have an ordinarily working brain. I also found how incredibly the brain works by learning more about the neurological concepts Sacks discussed in the book directly and indirectly. Sacks’ work is part of more of an ideology than movement because of its rich knowledge on medical phenomena and insights (Rahmawati, 2009). The book’s content allows people with its discussed disorders to grasp important aspects of their conditions. For instance, the first and second case studies concern with neurological roles, the third one with illusions and images, and the last one with simple and innocent tales of the conscious and unconscious mind (Sacks, 2011, p. 48). Narratives of the first section present the overall neurological conditions that occurred to Sacks’ patients. Identical patterns of the patients’ conducts and mental activity assist the audience in knowing the characteristics of a sick mind. The second case study is a series of tales about truly peculiar neurological problems wherein patients have excess brain roles. Some of the patients with this problem considered it a fortune and forewent any medication while others thought of it as the actual treatment. The last case study involves adult patients with disorders that cause them to behave like children (Rahmawati, 2009). The same condition allows these patients to perform exceedingly well in arts and logistics such as Rebecca in theatre and John and Michael on history. Sacks has written many more books that have legacies which reflect on “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” and its significance. Sacks was born in 1933 and came up in an intellectually challenging Jewish family in north London (Anthony, 2010). Six years later, Sacks attended a boarding school in Northamptonshire. According to Sacks, his parents were not as affection as stories he would get from his peers (Sacks, 2011, p. 205). Unsurprisingly, Sacks was curious about science and natural phenomena, which greatly contributed to his interest in medicine. Sacks continued this interest to Oxford where he studied medicine and migrated to the United States. Before practicing medicine, Sacks tried drugs like LSD and amphetamines. This period did not last for long as Sacks abandoned this behavior to pursue the analysis of neurological and psychological problems. This professional practice continued to today, an over 45-year span (Anthony, 2010). As of 2014, Sacks has eleven books under his belt (Anthony, 2010). As a practicing neurology professional and scholar at Columbia University, Sacks’ works have been the subject of support and criticism, particularly his combination of science and literary reflection. Even though practicing medicine is Sacks central livelihood, Sacks’ books are an impressive and singular body of prose (Anthony, 2010). This prose serves as Sacks optical trick that allows him to be conscious of milestones and happenings in science while narratively dramatizing his personal experiences with it. Diagnosed with prosopagnosia, Sacks could not recall people’s faces, which he addresses in this book to compare personal experiences with his patients (Sacks, 2011, p. 171). The legacy of Sacks other literature reveal the poetic and scientific parts of his professional and personal worlds (Anthony, 2010). In “The Mind’s Eye,” Sacks adds a chapter on his reaction to his individual medical condition, right eye melanoma, diagnosed five years earlier.in this chapter, Sacks discusses the alarming visual illusions he underwent as his mind tried to make up for the damaged caused by the cancerous growth. However, this is not the first time Sacks has deviated into his biography as a patient let alone write about his own sickness (Rahmawati, 2009). In his 1984 edition of “A Leg to Stand On,” Sacks recalls his struggles after hurting his leg while escaping a bull. A Proustian style or “aura” exists within Sacks’ writing in his 2001 “Uncle Tungsten,” which is a recollection of his substance-infatuated childhood (Anthony, 2010). This memoir contributes to science through chemistry the same way “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” contributes to neurology. “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” is relevant to a general audience intrigued by intelligent works. Sacks ability to make up for deteriorating neurological function unconsciously argues for the brilliant ability to heal the rifts that surface between individualism and reality in the event of an accident (Sacks, 2011, p. 35). In this case, Sacks uses the life of patient P. to reveal this ability and show how his audience can apply his experiences to get through their medical hardships. P. is an educated man absorbed in his passion for music that allows him to enjoy commitment from his wife, students, and coworkers (Rahmawati, 2009). This commitment and relationship sends off a sort of strange charm to the tale. P.’s reliance on music and scent to base his personality to the affluence of the world surrounding him teaches Sacks’ audience the loving element of humanity. The relevance of Sacks’ book is true and appealing to neurology and psychology researchers seeking firsthand records of experiences with suffers of related sickness (Anthony, 2010). Sacks characterizes P.’s optical deficiency as a loss of emotion and judgment around visual information that lowers the solid, true, and individual aspects of life to mechanical concepts. P.’s vision is similar to a computer’s simulation or optical specs, which is why Sacks uses the analogy of P.’s agnosia and the present status of the fields of neurology and psychology (Sacks, 2011, p. 20). Symptoms Dr. P. exhibits because of agnosia include loss of memory and aphasia. Both fields view the human mind as a computer and do not perceive of what is solid and true about individuals. Sacks, P.’s doctor, averts this desire for emotion when he withholds a diagnosis of the deficiency. Rather, Sacks recommends more music to build up P.’s passion for music, which he believes plays a significant role in his personal and professional worlds (Sacks, 2011, p. 24). This edition of “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” is more suitable for academic reading than for a general audience. Readers who lack a psychology and neurology background acquire insights from the text because of Sacks’ simple language and style of writing (Anthony, 2010). Sacks applies simplified and engaging diction that helps overall readers to understand the case studies. Additionally, Sacks helps his general audience by using postscripts that explain the history of the stories’ patients or their disorders. Every narration compels general readers to relate to the patients in the book by placing themselves in their shoes (Anthony, 2010). Aside from the introduction of the Losses section of the book, confusion in Sacks’ choice of word is low throughout the rest of the text. Another example of slightly complicated language present in the text is Sacks’ opening of the narration of “The Vision of Hildegard.” However, the rest of the text offers appealing cases for a general audience to know and show empathy for patients’ problems (Sacks, 2011, p. 182). As an academic reading, psychology and neurology teachers can use “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” as a class resource. In addition, a chemistry class can relate the book’s association with medicine that Sacks uses to treat his patients. For other disciplines, the book can give students and teachers various points of view and up-to-date information on neurological conditions (Sacks, 2011, p. 256). The text further presents rich knowledge about various kinds of neurological problems, their features, and medical management. What makes the book even more suitable for academic readers is the exclusivity of the case studies. Other academically recommended texts on neurological problems and their characteristics do not have case studies similar to the ones Sacks presents. The detailed and personalized nature of these case studies offer more than an academic experience for teachers and students, creating a want for critical analysis and learning more about the patients (Rahmawati, 2009). The book can assist academic readers in handling various issues of neurological and psychological nature. Moreover, teachers can use the book to know how to handle special needs students. The social research that Sacks conducts for the book is based on personal, recorded conversations with his patients (Rahmawati, 2009). However, Sacks uses scholarly, medical literature and principles to scrutinize the data he gathers from his patients. For instance, social research for the first case study deduces that Dr. P is “lost in a world of lifeless abstractions” (Sacks, 2011, p. 15). During this research, readers wonder or question whether Dr. P’s illness originated from a condition on the input or the output part of the mind. Sacks’ social research is comprehensive enough to allow for such essential questions when diagnosing neurological and psychological problems. Readers can also appropriately question whether Dr. P’s eyes were conveying correct images to the brain and whether the mind misinterpreted those visual signals to form an alternate reality. The type of data Sacks gathers for his social research is qualitative (Rahmawati, 2009). Pros of using this method research are allowing applicability in medicine and psychology teachings and research works, distinguished quality of patient-doctor relationships, positive patient experimentation, and cautious attention on problem identification. These aspects of social research using qualitative data provide a great deal of help for students and teachers (Sacks, 2011, p. 69). Cons of this method include flawed evaluations, slightly biased views, and dichotomy methods. Even though Sacks admits to his original flawed evaluation, his contemplation after interactions with his patients has integral subjectivity that students and teachers may miss. In conclusion, much like a class textual or reference book, Sacks uses case studies to introduce the frame of his own, carefully chosen observations methodically, coupled with related discussions that he had with his patients. The book highlights the writer’s development of relationships with patients in an effort to understand their individualisms. These themes and writing styles by Sacks resonate with me as an academic and general reader, which is why I chose this particular work by the author. Reading “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” mad me crave a more critical analysis of particular narrative and medical elements used by the author to explain and interpret its case studies. References Anthony, A., 2010. Oliver Sacks: The visionary who cant recognise faces. The Guardian, [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2010/oct/17/profile-oliver-sacks-author- neurologist Rahmawati, Y., 2009. CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF “THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT” By: Oliver Sacks. Critical Analysis of The Novels, [Online] Available at: http://pendidikansains.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/critical-analysis-of- %E2%80%9Cthe-man-who-mistook-his-wife-for-a-hat%E2%80%9D-byoliver- sacks/ Sacks, O., 2011. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. New York: Picador. Read More