Oliver Sacks’ The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is a collection of recounted case histories of patients suffering from a wide variety of neurological disorders. The book is separated into 4 sections: “Losses,” “Excesses,” “Transports,” and “The World of the Simple.” Each section contains a series of case studies having to do with a specific aspect of neurology, which is defined as “the field of science dealing with the nervous system.” The author, Oliver Sacks, is a British Neurologist who earned his medical degree at Oxford University (Queen’s College) and has lived in New York since 1965 as a practicing neurologist. Currently he is a neurology professor at the NYU School of Medicine, continuing his practice in the NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. Throughout the different sections of the novel, Sacks pairs these short-story-like case histories with “normal” language to provide readers with a more comprehensible understanding of the complex workings of varying neurological disorders. Through his poetic storytelling and thorough understanding of neurological disorders and the brain, Sacks brings attention to the ways in which these disorders content that can be accessible to the reader which makes him even more credible.
In part one of the book titled “Losses,” Sacks discusses neurological disorders that are considered to be “deficits” in normal neurological functioning. He makes the claim that neurologists have the tendency to label nearly all neurological disorders as deficits. This basically means that the individual has some sort of impairment in performance ranging from loss of vision to loss of memory. Based on what we learned in class about the anatomy of the brain, we know that the areas of the brain specifically being affected in these cases are the occipital lobe and hippocampus. Sacks also brings up how this model of mental illness being a deficit is not entirely accurate because such little research has been done on the right hemisphere of the brain in comparison to the left hemisphere. Another point made is that the affected
subjects aren’t given enough credit for their abilities to find ways to compensate for whatever “deficit” they are suffering from. He brings light to such abilities in the case studies provided in this section.
In part two of the book titled “Excesses,” Sacks discusses the overabundance of neurological functioning, the contrary to deficits in metal processes. Rather than focusing strictly on the ways this “excess” affects the brain, Sacks displays how an overabundance of function impacts patients’ daily lives. These case studies primarily consist of patients suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome, which as we know from class is due to there being complications with the basal ganglia (controls body movement), as well as there being less white matter in the brains of individuals with this disorder.
In part three of the book, titled “Transports,” Sacks discusses cases in which neurological conditions altered patients’ perceptions of reality, in ways that can be deemed imaginative, euphoric, and even “otherworldly.” As it is brought up in the case studies within the section, majority of the cases have to do with seizures disturbing certain regions of the brain. One example given of this was how these women claimed to be hearing loud, beautiful music, when in actuality they were suffering from recurring seizures in the temporal lobe of their brains, which we know to be in control of one’s auditory perception.
Lastly, in the final portion of the book titled “The World of the Simple,” Sacks discusses the work he has done with individuals who are mentally challenged in some way. A major theme brought up in the case studies he provides for this section is “concreteness,” which is, in the case of those who are mentally challenged, the way they perceive the world as a collection of material things rather than abstract concepts. He brings light to the true beauty behind such individuals which may seem depressing to one at face value. With this, he ends his book with the stories of
individuals who may not perceive the world and its complexities, but how despite this ability to do so, these mentally challenged patients of his have a strong connection with the concrete world in their musical or mathematical gifts, for example, while still having mental deficiencies, showing that they too are simply human.
When it comes to the ways in which Sacks creates a book that is accessible and much more credible than others he does this by adding outside sources and making the stories he tells both poetic and understandable. He doesn’t try to make it so that neurological disorders are inaccessible to a wider audience. This book reads in a way that anyone, interested in neuroscience or not, can understand it and want to continue to learn about it. In Chapter 18, “The Dog Beneath the Sun”, Sacks brings up the story of a medical student, age 22, on highs. The way this chapter reads is so that it can be accessed by all, the fact that right off the bat this is a profile on someone that any college student can relate too, especially, makes it even more accessible. Sacks states in one of his footnotes clarifying “a strange nostalgia…” (156) that it is a “a strange emotionalism…reminiscence”. The fact that this footnote creates a sense of understanding beyond what is just written shows that Sacks puts in care to wanting his audience to more deeply understand the subject matter. As the case study continues we learn about the enhancement of smell being affiliated with “paraphilia, fetishism, and allied perversions and regressions.” (158) The reason this part is another solid example of Sacks credibility is because in his footnotes he thing refers to this later being described by A.A Brill in 1932 as a “contrast with the overall brilliance, the redolence, of the smell world…” (158). The truth of the matter is that through the creation of access, which is what Sacks is doing by using such simple terms, neuroscience is becoming accessible and something that anyone can enjoy which, in a way, even furthers his credibility. Knowledge like this should be accessible to all not just those who can afford and education and to study it and Sacks is doing just that.
All in all, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is Oliver Sacks’ way of creating access for all into the realm of neuroscience. The way this book is broken up into four parts makes it easier to digest and creates for a sense of fluidity that makes the reader continue to wonder about other neurological findings. Lastly, looking back at the ways in which Sacks creates accessibility his clear use of simple yet poetic language makes it so that there is a further want to continue to understand neuroscience as a whole instead of just running away from it. The fact that this is written to be understood makes it so that it is much more enjoyable and more easily digested which is, in many ways, a way of inviting all to enjoy the world of neuroscience not just those who have exclusive access to it.
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Great book, easy read
The author is a brilliant man who fills the book with many wonderful stories of people with either degenerative or excessive brain functions. Glad I got it!
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Reviewed in France on September 3, 2023