The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks

This book by Dr Oliver Sacks was first published in 1970. It is an astonishing and fascinating look at a set of cases in which severe neurological disorders are present. Sacks has helpfully grouped these. Although a lot of these people are completely able to function in life without too many problems, others spend their lives or the remainder of their lives stuck in homes or hospitals unable to function normally enough for society.

The first part of the book covers disorders which constitute loss. He covers several neurological cases which have come before him in which the person's perceptions are clouded. One case deals with a man who has a perfect memory but does not recognise faces; another with a man who is stuck in the past. With many of these patients, they are able to operate in their lives outside their disorders, sadly some of them (in particular a man who believes it is 1945) are stuck within their disorders and Sacks describes how some of these men have lost their spirit because nothing makes sense any more.

The second phase of the book deals with disorders of 'excess', including Tourettes Syndrome and other similar disorders. 'Witty Ticcy Ray' is one of the patients dealt with in this section, he finds that when the drugs to prevent his tics work he is lost, unable to be the same person he was before. After months of therapeutically working through the personality intrinsically linked to this disorder. The end result is the socially acceptable Ray of weekdays constrasted with the 'witty ticcy' Ray in the weekends, he finds by leading this double life that things are easier to accept. Again, Sacks is able to explore how, although these disorders seem debilitating they can become a way of life.

The third part of the book deals with disorders where a particular moment in time or memory becomes overly important. A few of the disorders dealt with in this part of the book occur with people hearing music that is only there to them. In on of these cases the music is taking the patient back to her childhood, although th music eventually stops. She thinks back to this time and misses it because of the happiness that remembering the music had brought her.

The last section deals with severe neurological disorders, where all of the patients described have IQs of under 60. Despite this, further investigation reveals magical things about them. A girl with sever psychomotor impairment who can barely walk or perform simple exercise is somehow able to dance when music is turned on. Sacks eventually puts her in a theatre programme where she soars once her special talent is brought out. Another case involving a pair of twins with a similar disorder, who do not understand mathematical symbols, he discovers that they play a game involving six digit prime numbers.

Although this book is quite dated, and some of the language especially in the last chapter is now not used any more, it is full of amazing cases. For a doctor, Sacks displays a rare talent to look beyond the case at hand and see more in people who have been diagnosed as having severe impairments. The book is written well, it is beautiful and especially the last chapter had me thinking.