- Hardcover: 263 pages
- Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group; First Edition edition (26 Oct 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0307272087
- ISBN-13: 978-0307272089
- Product Dimensions: 14.6 x 2.9 x 21.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,808,598 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Mind's Eye
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Review
'Alongside a selection of neurological cases, Sacks turns the light on himself to reveal the complex interplay between seeing and thinking'
--Daily Telegraph Review magazine
'Alongside a selection of neurological cases, Sacks turns the light on himself to reveal the complex interplay between seeing and thinking' --Daily Telegraph Review
'Sacks is commendably accessible as always, no matter how tricky the science, and as ever he looks for the hope in neurological situations, for the signs that might mean recovery. His fascination with the brain and what it does is truly infectious' --The Glasgow Herald
'Offering hope and wisdom it illustrates how vital sight is to our perception of the world' --Daily Express
'All these essays highlight the fragility of the fine neurological threads that tether people to their sense of self: the sudden collapse of esteemed physician into terrified patient brings home the point with precision'
--Guardian Saturday Review
`In measured prose with a blessed lack of jargon, Sacks explores the ingenuity with which individuals cope with bizarre neurological conditions...humane, empathic, he is the doctor you would want.' --The Independent --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
--Daily Telegraph Review magazine
'Alongside a selection of neurological cases, Sacks turns the light on himself to reveal the complex interplay between seeing and thinking' --Daily Telegraph Review
'Sacks is commendably accessible as always, no matter how tricky the science, and as ever he looks for the hope in neurological situations, for the signs that might mean recovery. His fascination with the brain and what it does is truly infectious' --The Glasgow Herald
'Offering hope and wisdom it illustrates how vital sight is to our perception of the world' --Daily Express
'All these essays highlight the fragility of the fine neurological threads that tether people to their sense of self: the sudden collapse of esteemed physician into terrified patient brings home the point with precision'
--Guardian Saturday Review
`In measured prose with a blessed lack of jargon, Sacks explores the ingenuity with which individuals cope with bizarre neurological conditions...humane, empathic, he is the doctor you would want.' --The Independent --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Product Description
In The Mind’s Eye, Oliver Sacks tells the stories of people who are able to navigate the world and communicate with others despite losing what many of us consider indispensable senses and abilities: the power of speech, the capacity to recognize faces, the sense of three-dimensional space, the ability to read, the sense of sight. For all of these people, the challenge is to adapt to a radically new way of being in the world.
There is Lilian, a concert pianist who becomes unable to read music and is eventually unable even to recognize everyday objects, and Sue, a neurobiologist who has never seen in three dimensions, until she suddenly acquires stereoscopic vision in her fifties.
There is Pat, who reinvents herself as a loving grandmother and active member of her community, despite the fact that she has aphasia and cannot utter a sentence, and Howard, a prolific novelist who must find a way to continue his life as a writer even after a stroke destroys his ability to read.
And there is Dr. Sacks himself, who tells the story of his own eye cancer and the bizarre and disconcerting effects of losing vision to one side.
Sacks explores some very strange paradoxes—people who can see perfectly well but cannot recognize their own children, and blind people who become hyper-visual or who navigate by “tongue vision.” He also considers more fundamental questions: How do we see? How do we think? How important is internal imagery—or vision, for that matter? Why is it that, although writing is only five thousand years old, humans have a universal, seemingly innate, potential for reading?
The Mind’s Eye is a testament to the complexity of vision and the brain and to the power of creativity and adaptation. And it provides a whole new perspective on the power of language and communication, as we try to imagine what it is to see with another person’s eyes, or another person’s mind.
There is Lilian, a concert pianist who becomes unable to read music and is eventually unable even to recognize everyday objects, and Sue, a neurobiologist who has never seen in three dimensions, until she suddenly acquires stereoscopic vision in her fifties.
There is Pat, who reinvents herself as a loving grandmother and active member of her community, despite the fact that she has aphasia and cannot utter a sentence, and Howard, a prolific novelist who must find a way to continue his life as a writer even after a stroke destroys his ability to read.
And there is Dr. Sacks himself, who tells the story of his own eye cancer and the bizarre and disconcerting effects of losing vision to one side.
Sacks explores some very strange paradoxes—people who can see perfectly well but cannot recognize their own children, and blind people who become hyper-visual or who navigate by “tongue vision.” He also considers more fundamental questions: How do we see? How do we think? How important is internal imagery—or vision, for that matter? Why is it that, although writing is only five thousand years old, humans have a universal, seemingly innate, potential for reading?
The Mind’s Eye is a testament to the complexity of vision and the brain and to the power of creativity and adaptation. And it provides a whole new perspective on the power of language and communication, as we try to imagine what it is to see with another person’s eyes, or another person’s mind.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This book is a collection of essays which illustrate how the human mind perceives and interprets information from the visual world. Like most of Oliver Sacks' other publications it is aimed at an audience who are familiar with (or can tolerate) a reasonable amount of medical and scientific data which is interwoven in a skillful fashion alongside the individual case studies.
The result is a publication that's brimming with insights about how the mind recognises faces, words, pictures and such and translates them into concepts which we can then act upon. But these are quite long and detailed chapters -- there are seven in a book of 200 pages -- written fluidly but in an old-fashioned style, with plenty of footnotes and references. So 'The Mind's Eye' isn't the kind of modern popular science book which you can dip into, or flick through. It's also a little hard-going to read at one sitting, especially as some of the information is repeated in different essays and the footnotes can be cumbersome (they disrupt the flow of reading for me).
Reading each chapter and then pausing to digest it meant that I got an enormous amount from this book, both in terms of understanding specific neurological conditions (such as the inability to recognise faces, or words) and across a broader scope. There's a fascinating review of how we take 3D, stereo vision for granted, and all kinds of odd tangental deviations from the core subject which illuminate peripheral scientific subjects. For instance, Sacks explains a useful theory about how writing developed in a brain which has no evolutionary need for it.
All the medical / scientific information is presented in a very human format, using each case study as an example and filling out the historical background to each condition and how the medical establishment has come to understand it. Some of the case studies involve inevitable mental deterioration and can be necessarily sad as a result; Sacks' skill is that he rarely allows them to become melancholy and emphasises the positive aspects of his patients' conditions. On many occasions this book celebrates the flexibility of the brain's function, durability of the human spirit and the individuals' determination to lead fulfilling lives despite their problems.
The section on the author's own diagnosis, treatment and reaction to loss of vision is particularly touching. Yet it's not sensational and nor is it self-indulgent.
'The Mind's Eye' isn't particularly easy going, but I found it to be very rewarding to read, and far more accessible than Sacks' previous 'Musicophilia' book.
8/10
The result is a publication that's brimming with insights about how the mind recognises faces, words, pictures and such and translates them into concepts which we can then act upon. But these are quite long and detailed chapters -- there are seven in a book of 200 pages -- written fluidly but in an old-fashioned style, with plenty of footnotes and references. So 'The Mind's Eye' isn't the kind of modern popular science book which you can dip into, or flick through. It's also a little hard-going to read at one sitting, especially as some of the information is repeated in different essays and the footnotes can be cumbersome (they disrupt the flow of reading for me).
Reading each chapter and then pausing to digest it meant that I got an enormous amount from this book, both in terms of understanding specific neurological conditions (such as the inability to recognise faces, or words) and across a broader scope. There's a fascinating review of how we take 3D, stereo vision for granted, and all kinds of odd tangental deviations from the core subject which illuminate peripheral scientific subjects. For instance, Sacks explains a useful theory about how writing developed in a brain which has no evolutionary need for it.
All the medical / scientific information is presented in a very human format, using each case study as an example and filling out the historical background to each condition and how the medical establishment has come to understand it. Some of the case studies involve inevitable mental deterioration and can be necessarily sad as a result; Sacks' skill is that he rarely allows them to become melancholy and emphasises the positive aspects of his patients' conditions. On many occasions this book celebrates the flexibility of the brain's function, durability of the human spirit and the individuals' determination to lead fulfilling lives despite their problems.
The section on the author's own diagnosis, treatment and reaction to loss of vision is particularly touching. Yet it's not sensational and nor is it self-indulgent.
'The Mind's Eye' isn't particularly easy going, but I found it to be very rewarding to read, and far more accessible than Sacks' previous 'Musicophilia' book.
8/10
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
In this volume Sacks use studies from his own case file, including his own experiences with prosopagnosia (face-blindness) and his treatment for retinal melanoma, to show how we experience and interpret the visual world.
The case histories include a concert pianist who found that she could no longer music, a novelist who lost the ability to read, a woman who had spent most of her life with no stereo vision (an issue that Sacks himself would encounter during his treatment)and a woman left unable to speak or comprehend language (aphasia) after a stroke. Although all these cases have had major consequences for their sufferers what is remarkable about them is how they have managed to adapt to them and re-build their lives around their conditions.
Sacks writes with his usual erudition and humanity and it is particularly touching to read the frankness with which he describes his own visual frailties and his struggle to come to terms with them. Why only 3 stars? Well, while I am normally a fan of Sacks' work, I really struggled to get into this book. I'm not really sure why this should be - it just lacks a certain je ne sais quoi and never really drew me in.
The case histories include a concert pianist who found that she could no longer music, a novelist who lost the ability to read, a woman who had spent most of her life with no stereo vision (an issue that Sacks himself would encounter during his treatment)and a woman left unable to speak or comprehend language (aphasia) after a stroke. Although all these cases have had major consequences for their sufferers what is remarkable about them is how they have managed to adapt to them and re-build their lives around their conditions.
Sacks writes with his usual erudition and humanity and it is particularly touching to read the frankness with which he describes his own visual frailties and his struggle to come to terms with them. Why only 3 stars? Well, while I am normally a fan of Sacks' work, I really struggled to get into this book. I'm not really sure why this should be - it just lacks a certain je ne sais quoi and never really drew me in.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I have a distinct memory of an article by Sacks that I read in the New Yorker a few years ago - one from his Musicophelia collection. I was impressed by the very lucid and yet evocative tone of his writing. My overwhelming impression, which is confirmed on reading The Mind's Eye, was that Sacks's main preoccupation was in trying to effectively communicate the experience of living in a world which is consistently mediated and distorted by a wayward mind. The science comes second; what is most interesting here is the attempt to hammer home the subjectivity of our everyday realities and the very frailness of our sensual understanding of the universe.
The Mind's Eye is best read as a series of discrete articles on a theme; anyone looking for a specific unifying arc for these case studies will be disappointed. Insights gained in one case rarely directly inform another, but on the other hand each story passed through here shows another way in which a life can be fundamentally altered by a chance impairment. Most curious for me is the musician who loses, first, her ability to sight read, and then gradually the capacity distinguish visually between concrete objects, to the extent that she can't tell a window from a wall - and beyond even that. She can distinguish between fruits by squeezing them, but when presented with them has no idea what she is looking at - even though her eyes themselves are functioning perfectly well. More and more is lost, more and more astonishingly.
The author's own experience with a retinal tumor stands out in a slightly different way, as his intimacy with the subject allows Sacks's tendencies towards the poetic to really flourish when he is describing, for example, peculiar feelings of half-blindness, of people's top halves being chopped off, and strange anomalies floating into his field of view, and of his brain working overtime to fill in the gaps. How might it feel stare at a point in the distance, a quarter of your view obscured by a tumour, and watch as the mind gradually fills the missing space with best-guess details? He does his best to explain, and often does a great job, although from time to time the descriptions become somewhat florid. Excerpts from his diaries at the time sometimes seem paranoiac and melodramatic; but I suppose they would!
On the whole this is a really interesting book. It perhaps lacks depth, but where it really excels is in its ability to push you towards understanding that what you see isn't always really what you get.
The Mind's Eye is best read as a series of discrete articles on a theme; anyone looking for a specific unifying arc for these case studies will be disappointed. Insights gained in one case rarely directly inform another, but on the other hand each story passed through here shows another way in which a life can be fundamentally altered by a chance impairment. Most curious for me is the musician who loses, first, her ability to sight read, and then gradually the capacity distinguish visually between concrete objects, to the extent that she can't tell a window from a wall - and beyond even that. She can distinguish between fruits by squeezing them, but when presented with them has no idea what she is looking at - even though her eyes themselves are functioning perfectly well. More and more is lost, more and more astonishingly.
The author's own experience with a retinal tumor stands out in a slightly different way, as his intimacy with the subject allows Sacks's tendencies towards the poetic to really flourish when he is describing, for example, peculiar feelings of half-blindness, of people's top halves being chopped off, and strange anomalies floating into his field of view, and of his brain working overtime to fill in the gaps. How might it feel stare at a point in the distance, a quarter of your view obscured by a tumour, and watch as the mind gradually fills the missing space with best-guess details? He does his best to explain, and often does a great job, although from time to time the descriptions become somewhat florid. Excerpts from his diaries at the time sometimes seem paranoiac and melodramatic; but I suppose they would!
On the whole this is a really interesting book. It perhaps lacks depth, but where it really excels is in its ability to push you towards understanding that what you see isn't always really what you get.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Book -"The Mind`s Eye" - Oliver Sacks
A fascinating book about how the brain`s different areas function when a sense is lost. Told in anecdotal form, and also part autobiographic. Read more
Published 17 days ago by Hillside
Interesting case studies about vision and the brain
Oliver Sacks, a leading neurologist, offers a selection of case studies each concerned with how we see things. Read more
Published 1 month ago by William Fross
travelling
this book is really interesting, Sacks illustrates his entire journey through a case and describes his thought process in a way that a layman can follow what he experiences as a... Read more
Published 4 months ago by S. J. Russell
The Shape of Human Experience
I was fascinated by The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks Summary & Study Guide when I first read it as a a teenager. Read more
Published 5 months ago by purpleheart
Interesting and engaging
This is definitely a book worth reading: Oliver Sacks has a genuine concern for his patients and the odd worlds their conditions force them to live in. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Pieter Hounslow
A more personal view
Dr Oliver Sacks has an ability to bring medicine and science alive via a focus on individual case studies. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Random Reader
The Mind's Eye
This book delights, inspires and informs.The author shares his great knowledge and intellect through stories of his patients and himself. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Rh
A bit mixed...
This is the first Oliver Sacks book that I've read, and I got it because I'm fascinated by how the mind works and this seemed to promise all kinds of treasures. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Bookish
A wonderful book about seeing
If you have read any other books by Oliver Sacks you will know that they are collections of fascinating and obscure medical case histories, usually linked together by a theme. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Tealady2000
One of Sacks finest
Really a wonderful book. One of Sacks finest, it really compares well to my other favourite, 'A leg to stand on'. Read more
Published 17 months ago by sam
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