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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: and Other Clinical Tales (Unabridged)
 
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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: and Other Clinical Tales (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

by Oliver Sacks (Author, Narrator), Jonathan Davis (Narrator)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Audio Download
  • Listening Length: 9 hours and 36 minutes
  • Program Type: Audiobook
  • Version: Unabridged
  • Publisher: Audible, Inc.
  • Audible Release Date: 21 Jun 2011
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00578NPF2
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)

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Product Description

In his most extraordinary book, "one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century" (The New York Times) recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as retarded yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents.

If inconceivably strange, these brilliant tales remain, in Dr. Sacks' splendid and sympathetic telling, deeply human. They are studies of life struggling against incredible adversity, and they enable us to enter the world of the neurologically impaired, to imagine with our hearts what it must be to live and feel as they do. A great healer, Sacks never loses sight of medicine's ultimate responsibility: "the suffering, afflicted, fighting human subject".

PLEASE NOTE: Some changes have been made to the original manuscript with the permission of Oliver Sacks.

©1970, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985 Oliver Sacks; (P)2011 Audible, Inc.
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
36 of 37 people found the following review helpful
A lovely book 3 Feb 2008
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.
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68 of 71 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.

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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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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Bringing Neuropsychology to Life
As a current Psychology student, I was recommended this book to help better understand principles and illnesses I had learned about in cognitive neuropsychology. Read more
Published 9 days ago by Imogen
The Man who mistook his wife for a hat
Thoroughly enjoyable read based on experiences of a physician who is clearly passionate and produced groundbreaking results across his career. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Emily Ash
Shedding light on the expanses of the human experience
Sacks writes with respect and great insight for his case studies, and each character in this book brings to life a multitude of examples of lives beyond our own. Read more
Published 1 month ago by justanonlooker
Mental illness - but not as we know it
I have been intending to read this book for many years and now I have finally got around to doing so. It was worth the wait. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Damaskcat
Perfectly like tick-tick-clock-work
My mother says she's afflicted by a new compulsion to write children's poetry and nonsense verse so I thought The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Picador) would help her. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Witty Ticcy Ray
Fascinating..
Interesting, thought provoking and well written. Bite sized chunks of insight from Dr Sacks about truly weird cases. Read more
Published 7 months ago by L R McCallum
Interesting & well written
I first heard of Oliver Sacks (like most people,) when the Awakenings film came out. I've now read a few of his books including this one & Awakenings & have thoroughly enjoyed... Read more
Published 8 months ago by NJR
book review
Bought this book to help with my first year at university where I am studying psychology. It has been a great read and extremely interesting.
Published 8 months ago by l1z
Insight and compassion
This is a fascinating book - Oliver Sacks writes in straightforward and simple prose so while dealing with complex neurological matters, the writing can be understood by the... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Clive A. H. Still
Accessible
The beauty of this book is that it covers what is an extremely complex area (neuropsychology) and makes it both accessible and enjoyable to the lay reader. Read more
Published 13 months ago by The Collector
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