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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
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Review
"New York Magazine" Dr. Sacks's most absorbing book.... His tales are so compelling that many of them serve as eerie metaphors not only for the condition of modern medicine but of modern man.
Book Description
‘Oliver Sacks has become the world’s best-known neurologist. His case studies of broken minds offer brilliant insight into the mysteries of consciousness’ Guardian In his most extraordinary book, Oliver Sacks recounts the stories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. These are case studies of people who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people or common objects; whose limbs have become alien; who are afflicted and yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents. In Dr Sacks’s splendid and sympathetic telling, each tale is a unique and deeply human study of life struggling against incredible adversity. ‘Populated by a cast as strange as that of the most fantastic fiction . . . Dr Sacks shows the awesome powers of our mind and just how delicately balanced they have to be’ Sunday Times ‘This book is for everybody who has felt from time to time that certain twinge of self-identity and sensed how easily, at any moment, one might lose it’ The Times ‘A gripping journey into the recesses of the human mind’ Daily Mail
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
76 of 79 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is written in a beautifully accessible and entertaining style; it is also moving, funny and tragic in equal measures.
Consisting mainly of short stories relating patient 'oddities' that the author has treated in his long career as a neurologist it manages to come across as anything but a list of dry case histories. The inclusion of the emotions of the patient as they deal with their difficulties and the reactions of the author keep this book human rather than academic.
Although this is a recommended book for undergraduate students of various disciplines, it should not be discounted as a mere informative reader because of that. Anyone interested in stories of the human condition or those with a fascination/awe of the human brain will find this intriguing, engaging and interesting.
46 of 48 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first came across Oliver Sacks in a doctor's waiting room. There, lying on the table, was a copy of his first book, "Migraine". Since I suffer from bad headaches, I picked it up and started reading. Thoroughly intrigued by the elegantly written case studies it contained, I asked the doctor if I could borrow it, took it home, and finished it that evening. I then began to notice that Mr. Sacks periodically wrote articles for the New Yorker on strange neurological cases, and every time one came out I read it with delectation. So when I saw Mr. Sack's book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" at my local bookstore I bought it immediately.
I was not let down. The book is a fascinating compendium of neurological case studies, classified into four parts: Losses, Excesses, Transports, The World of the Simple. Mr. Sacks takes us on a journey through a series of neurological disturbances with extreme effects. Initially, one reads them with appalled fascination, with a feeling of being at the Circus staring at the Bearded Lady or the Elephant Man; I was forcefully reminded of Sylvia Plath's lines in "Lady Lazarus":
The Peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to see
Them unwrap me hand in foot --
The big strip tease.
But Oliver Sacks writes soberly and with great compassion about his cases, and drags us away from mere peanut-crunching voyeurism to finally contemplate what the cases tell us about what it means to be us.
I was not let down. The book is a fascinating compendium of neurological case studies, classified into four parts: Losses, Excesses, Transports, The World of the Simple. Mr. Sacks takes us on a journey through a series of neurological disturbances with extreme effects. Initially, one reads them with appalled fascination, with a feeling of being at the Circus staring at the Bearded Lady or the Elephant Man; I was forcefully reminded of Sylvia Plath's lines in "Lady Lazarus":
The Peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to see
Them unwrap me hand in foot --
The big strip tease.
But Oliver Sacks writes soberly and with great compassion about his cases, and drags us away from mere peanut-crunching voyeurism to finally contemplate what the cases tell us about what it means to be us.
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sacks delivers a powerful portrayal of what can happen in the case of brain malfunction. Where most books dealing with this subject area concentrate on the nuts and bolts of brain function Sack's text brings it to life by focusing on the real experiances of patients known to him. By doing this Sack's creates real understanding of how brain malfunction can impact on ordinary lives. The reading of the book itself is an experience. The cases themselves are both terrifying and intriguing and at the same time inspiring. This book is recommended to anyone as an experience alone and will be of particular use and importance to anyone interested in the fragility of the human mind/brain. Highly recommended to students of psychology and psychiatry.
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4.4 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Really interesting
I bought this by mistake after seing someone else reading it on the train. A really captivating and interesting read.
Published 2 hours ago by MRS SAMANTHA WILLIAMS
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved it !
I've always been interested in psychology and neurology. Although, I haven't studied anything related to them, this book was a flowy and an easy read. Read more
Published 22 days ago by thura
5.0 out of 5 stars
lovely
This book is very moving and I like the short story set up of the book. It was cheap and has allowed me to look at the stories in more detail for my project. x
Published 1 month ago by Emma Louise
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating read
For my degree we were asked to read and review a book from a list of 5 and this was one one them. I have to say the case studies within it are interesting to me as undergraduate... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Emma_Openshaw
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fasintating
Great read, lots of empirical data that I actually found fascinating instead of boring as it can be...! Dr Sacks comes across as a very compasionate man
Published 1 month ago by chris b
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating
This book is fascinating. To obtain some insight into the complexity of the brain and the quirks of processing is something which we rarely get. Read more
Published 1 month ago by sparky72
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very, very interesting read
After reading an interview with Oliver Sacks in New Scientist, I purchased this book. It was very interesting and gave much food for thought. Read more
Published 2 months ago by kaahaa
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Presen
Bought this as a Christmas present it was well received and is doing the Grand children rounds they all wanted to read it
Published 3 months ago by cheeter173
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting
without any knowledge of neurology I read it for the interesting stories and the 'expert' but human point of view on the conditions presented which are fascinating because of what... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Cata
3.0 out of 5 stars
not for me
slow not griping not what I expected, the writer goes round the houses and fails to get there, some may like it.
Published 3 months ago by Philip Beckwith
Listmania!
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