It is said, that a good book is a breeze to read. "The man who took his wife for a hat" (1985) written by Olivier Sacks was exactly the opposite, an incredibly hard text. Professor of neurology asks himself - and a reader - what defines the human nature. It is not a book about clinical cases with rare diseases; it is about ordinary people whose life suddenly went wrong and the world around them has changed irreversibly. Instead of describing patients, Sacks tells stories. Stories of people with altered perception of reality, struggling in a desperate attempt to re-possess themselves. Guiding a reader through the meanders of human mind, the author proves that behind an illness, there is always a person. Each tale shows us a patient who feels, thinks and perceives. We usually associate mental illness with a loss of mind, but it can manifest in many ways, including the loss of body (sense of proprioception). Sometimes patients acquire excesses: ticks, grimaces, new abilities, false memories replacing the vanishing ones... So what is the disease? Is it always depriving of something, or may also enrich ones life? …show more content…
It is a wise book containing stories of 24 patients. Together with them we experience different states: loneliness, hope, fear, desire to change own fate. We observe how are they coming back to life, how do they learn to "coexist with their new, changed self". While reading we realize that we see, hear, touch, smell, taste... We are completely dependent on our 5 senses and we take them for granted. "But there are other senses - secret senses, sixth senses, if you will - equally vital, but unrecognized, and unlauded. These senses, unconscious, automatic, had to be discovered" - says Sacks in one of his tales, helping us to understand how complex - yet how fragile - we
The movie entitled “Awakenings” is a visualization of Dr. Sack’s autobiographical account of his efforts in treating people afflicted with a neurological disease in hopes of regaining proper brain function. In its very essence the story circulates around the unyielding compassion of a doctor who
For example, in the story of “Witty Ticcy Ray,” it talks about Ray, a twenty-four year old man, who has Tourette’s syndrome and causes him to have excess energy and quick reflexes. The theme of Transport is about disorders dealing with dreams, feelings, imagination, or any other unconscious activity in the brain. This section discusses stories of Sack’s patients who have these disorders. One of Sack’s patient who was a twenty-two year old medical student and dreamt of being a dog. He also sniffed like a dog and had keen sense of smell like a dog. Additionally, the theme of The World of the Simple is about the patients who had a simple and innocent mind. “The Twins” is the story of twins who are able to remember algorithm and time without any
I always looked at death as such a sad thing that is eventually going to occur to everyone. However, after reading this book, it made me realize death can actually be a beautiful thing. Death allows a person to go to a next life, one where they will be loved and others will be there for them. It was interesting to be able to read about stories that these hospice care workers witnessed themselves. I have experienced a few deaths within my life and I never coped with them very well. After reading this book, I honestly believe I will be able to look at the positive side of death and be able to deal with my emotions better. I can also help others surrounding me deal with a death that they are experiencing. This book was filled with information that I loved learning. For example, I never knew that a dying person can choose a time to die. The thought of this never occurred to me before. I always thought that when it was someone’s time to go, they had no choice. But, a dying person can “put off” passing on until they see a certain person or event that has great significance in their life. Nevertheless, there are still people who will wait to die until they’re all alone in the room. This book makes you think of real life situations and think what you would do in them. Taken as a whole, it was a very in depth book that changes the way you would naturally perceive
The novel, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks, is a neurological and psychological journal of Dr. Oliver Sacks’s patients. He describes each one of his patients illnesses into twenty-four short stories. These short stories are split into 4 parts: Losses, Excesses, Transports, and The World of the Simple.
The essence of the book is about perspectives. one of the most common ideologies about perspective is how one views a glass of liquid is it half full or half empty. This is supposed to speak volumes about how one sees life. of course there is more to perspective than how one sees a glass of liquid but it is one of the easiest ways to put perspective into
Reading the poem “Schizophrenia” really opened my eyes when thinking about the mental illness. The poet transforms the way of thinking about schizophrenia by the usage of three literary terms personification, metaphor, and tone throughout the poem. My initial thoughts that this poem would focus on a person with schizophrenia, but later realize that the poem shows the destruction of the disease, which made this a great poem. The poem painted a vivid picture of how schizophrenia could ruin happiness, a relationship and even a place of comfort. After reading the poem by Stevens, readers can take away the message if a person does not get control over the disease, it will end up controlling or destroying a person’s
Literary Analysis The rattling of tiny white pills produces a stark array of reactions, from the girl who whimpers, craning her neck away, to the man whose features visibly brighten. Medication for mental illness is a godsend for some, tiny molecules of chemicals being the only way they can face the world, and a personal hell for others -be it a false diagnosis, or the abuse of those pills. The mentally ill of modern times have a host of resources available to them, and many still must bear the burden of suffering in silence.
A narrative is constructed to elicit a particular response from its audience. In the form of a written story, authors use specific narrative strategies to position the ‘ideal reader’ to attain the intended understanding of the meanings in the text. Oliver Sacks’ short story The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is an unusual short story because it does not display conventional plot development; the story does not contain conflict or resolution of conflict. The genre of the story is also difficult to define because it reads as an autobiographical account of an experience Sacks had with a patient while working as a neurologist. Although it is arguable that the narrative is a work of non-fiction, it is nevertheless a representation, distinct from a reflection of the real events. It is a construction, Sacks chose the elements that were included and omitted in the narrative and used narrative strategies to position readers to process the signs in the text and produce reach the dominant understanding. This blurring of truth and fiction is similar to that in the genre of ‘new journalism’. Although, rather than being a journalist writing a fictional piece of journalism, Sacks is a doctor writing a fictional medical analysis. To influence readers’ comprehension of the narrative, Sacks utilised the point of view strategy of subjective narration, atypical in this short story in that a characterisation or representation of Oliver Sacks is the narrator and Oliver Sacks the person is the real author. The story is character-driven rather than plot-driven and regardless of how accurate a depiction of the real people the characters are, they are constructions. Sacks gave the characters of Doctor P. and his namesake admirable and sympathetic trait...
...reader to gain inside thought into how bad the mental condition is affecting him as his behavior allows for further indication of craziness as a result from the schizophrenia. The evidence presented in this play for the scientific explanation of this literary classic is quite prominent as it gives an insight into what a schizophrenic acts, thinks, and behaves like.
Richard Wright, in his essay “Discovering Books,” explains how reading books changed his outlook on life and eventually his life itself. The first book that widened his horizons was an overtly controversial book by H. L. Mencken. I have a story not so dissimilar from his.
The creation of a stressful psychological state of mind is prevalent in the story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, as well as, Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Ophelia’s struggles in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, and the self-inflicted sickness seen in William Blake’s “Mad Song”. All the characters, in these stories and poems, are subjected to external forces that plant the seed of irrationality into their minds; thus, creating an adverse intellectual reaction, that from an outsider’s point of view, could be misconstrued as being in an altered state due to the introduction of a drug, prescribed or otherwise, furthering the percep...
Depression can be defined as part of a psychological state of mind that a person might encounter. Most famously recognized psychiatrist Sigmund Freud is known for his Psychodynamic theory. His psychoanalysis theory is known to be successful for treating patients with mental illness. Sylvia Plath, the author of the Bell Jar, makes the main character Esther go through a psychological transformation. Esther’s transformation can be realized through Freud’s psychoanalysis theory as the story unfolds from the beginning to end. The influences of people and events around Esther have affected her transformation.
“Dr. Gold told me once or twice during our sessions that I should try to avoid the hospital at all costs, owing to the stigma I might suffer” (Styron, 1989). This comment along with misguided medication dosages are one of the issues regarding the treatment William Styron received for depression. Throughout Styron’s novel, he describes his disorder of depression slowly creeping onto him as time passes. He is reluctant to seek professional help until an incident in Paris makes him realize he struggles with a disorder in his mind that could lead to a fatal outcome.
People in this world have many different struggles. Some deal with chronic pain, others with poverty and some even with the consequences of their bad choices. Numerous individuals also struggle with mental illness also known as various disorders that affect mood, personality, cognition and other areas of functioning. Mental illness is unique to the individual and can be experienced in a variety of ways. Three people that have experienced mental illness and all that it entails are Susanna Kaysen the author of the memoir Girl, Interrupted, John Nash-a mathematician whose life was the basis of the film A Beautiful Mind and a woman named Theresa Lozowski who is a medical professional. All three struggle with a mental illness and the way they view their illnesses and the aspects of it are similar in several ways as well as different. These similarities and differences are witnessed in how they view their symptoms, their diagnoses, how they view the cause of their mental illness as well as how they view mental illness in general. There were also similarities and differences in their views on taking medication as well as the treatment of psychotherapy.
D. W. Hamlyn - author. Publisher: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Place of Publication: Sensation and Perception: A History of the Philosophy of Perception. Contributors: London. Publication Year: 1961. Page Number: iii.