Oliver Sacks’s nonfiction book, A Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, was published by Simon & Schuster in New York in 1985. The book consists of various neurological clinical cases related to intellectual and perceptual abnormalities. The case studies are directly from Oliver Sacks’ patients and are divided into four sections: losses, excesses, transports and the world of the simple. Section one consists of clinical cases where a loss of a certain function impairs one to go about their day. Section two consists of cases where an excess of something makes or breaks a person. Section three talks about preconscious or the unconscious, which is like transporting to a dream-like state. Lastly section four covers patients …show more content…
Like mentioned above, the sections are losses, excesses, transports and the world of the simple. In the first section, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is the most popular and known case history in the book. It is about a music teacher, Dr.P, who loses his sense of perception as he sees features one by one when examining an object or a human being. Sacks claims that it is due to degradation in his visual cortex. An interesting aspect to this clinical case is that the Dr.P is unaware of his problem as he goes about his day. In the second section, there is a case study called Witty Ticcy Ray. It is about 24 years old Ray who has the Tourette’s syndrome. Even though he has abnormal reflexes, he uses sublimation and is able to play the drums extremely well. He accepts himself for who he is as he learns that something negative can turn into something positive. In the third section, there is a case study called The Dog Beneath the Skin. It is about Stephen D., a medical student later revealed to be Oliver Sacks, himself, who, after being under the influence of cocaine, amphetamines and phencyclidine (angel dust), develops a keen sense of smell. He has a sense of a dog, as he is able to identify shops and streets just by its smell. The last and fourth section has a case study called The Autist Artist. It is about a Jose, a man with autism, who is treated in an inhumane way by his caregiver. During one of the meetings, Sacks offers Jose a pencil and encourages him to draw. Sacks notices the great precision in his drawings and his awareness of his surroundings. This is a case that truly shows Sacks’ exploration and investigation when dealing with his
Losses, Excesses, Transports, and The World of the Simple are all four topics in the book “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales,” by Oliver Sacks. You might not understand what those mean or discuss until you realize who Oliver Sacks is. Oliver Sacks is a Neurologist who has had the chance to take upon these twenty-four case studies and share them in a book. The book is more focused on neurological functions, different forms of the mind, and hallucinations/visions. All of these are related to the first few chapters in our Psychology textbook (Chapters 2,3,6,8,10). Oliver Sacks gives us clear insight into the mind of those that perceive things much differently than most. It is a clear insight to what most of us are curious about but may not fully understand.
Two ideas about the nervous system that can be better understood from these observations are the concepts of having and locating the I-function. It seems that the I-function here is very often affected in terms of voluntary movement. A person with Arnold-Chiari malformation who has lost the feeling in and control of his arm for example will not be able to move it even upon someone's request and his or her own desire to do so. Some use of the I-function is definitely impaired. However, these observations do not seem to necessarily imply that some part of the I-function was damaged, because it may very well be located elsewhere- connections may have simply been lost. A person with Arnold-Chiari can still think and have a sense of self, but somehow can not connect with the various body parts that can be affected. Some uses and pathways of the I-function can be understood, but the exact location of it remains vague.
Oliver Sacks, MD, FRCP, was a neurologist and professor of neurology at NYU School of Medicine. He is also a best selling author, and is know by the New York Times as “the poet laureate of medicine.” He worked with music and music therapy and wrote Musicophilia: Tales of Music and The Brain (Knopf, 2007).
The relationship between brain and mind was studied by Broca in 1861 when he looked at patients with left hemisphere damage. However, Freud felt that by mapping functions to the different areas of the brain was too simple and there must be “equally complex physiological basis” (Sacks, 2011, P.3) Brain defects should be seen as problems caused by either replacing, restoring or compensating rather than a loss of brain function. Many people believe that damage to the brain can remove “abstract and categorical attitude” and removing the individual from emotions is wrong. A clear example of this is in “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat” where he in fact does the opposite.
In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon, English novelist, delivers a murder-mystery of Wellington, Mrs. Shears’ dog through an autistic view. Haddon uses the murder-mystery and other incidents during his lifetime to unwrap specifics of his disorder. He encounters specific situations, such as arriving at the train station, to explain how it takes groaning to calm him down and how he does not allow strangers to lay a hand on him. In his unraveling of his disorder and his quest to solve the murder-mystery, Haddon uses rhetorical devices such as details, metaphors, and imagery to develop his character.
(Author unknown). "Shel Silverstein Book Reviews." Shel Silverstein’s Adult Works. 1999. http://www.banned-width.com/shel/misc/breviews.html (25 Oct. 1999). Silverstein, Shel (1974).
...tation test where a person were to read the story without the knowledge that the real author is also the narrator and a character, it would probably be read as a detailed work of fiction. Because readers have the knowledge that Oliver Sacks is in fact a neurologist, it changes the meanings in the text. This is how the real author is distinct from the implied author; the implied author is what the reader can deduce from the material presented in the text, without any knowledge of the real author’s context. The knowledge that Oliver Sacks is in reality a neurologist also positions readers to accept the narrator’s version of events because they would be inclined to accept the privileged and authoritative narrative voice. The techniques of point of view, subjective narration and characterisation therefore position readers to accept the meanings presented in the text.
The psychoanalytic theory was first proposed by Sigmund Freud in the 19th century, and has further developed since then. The first part of this theory states that the author incorporates parts of his or her own personality and that these parts can be found within the story, usually in the personalities of one or more of the characters. The other part of the psychoanalytic theory is that some of the characters may be representations of the three parts of the subconscious- the id, the ego, and the superego. Both parts of the psychoanalytic theory can be applied to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Traces of the author’s personality can be found within multiple characters in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Cognitive psychologists investigate processes using case studies of brain-damaged patients, these are then analysed to build models that represent normal cognitive processes. This essay will examine the contribution case studies have made to the development of cognitive neuropsychology as a discipline in its own right and draw attention to issues surrounding the use of brain damaged patients to infer cognitive functions and processes. At the same time, it will evaluate the contribution that case studies have made to our understanding of cognitive processes.
Dramatic repetition is evident within the extract “loss of speech, loss of language, loss of memory, loss of vision, loss of dexterity, loss of identity” (Extracts from Sacks, 1998, p.1) reinforcing the meaning of deficit to help indicate the significance of these dysfunctions “denoting an impairment or incapacity of neurological function” (Extracts from Sacks, 1998, p.1). Like Sapolsky, Sacks draws on paradox in ‘The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat’ by illustrating his opinion to make the reader think in innovative ways (Literary Devices, 2018). Through Sacks’ home visits, metaphors are
Sigmund Freud has been heralded as one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century. He is renowned for his discoveries about the human mind, particularly dreams, fantasies, and the role of the unconscious. Even though many of his theories were (and are) viewed as controversial, his ideas revolutionized the way people think about themselves. The potency of his notions have permeated almost every discipline, including literature, art, and medicine. This paper will examine the life, the influences, and the impact of Sigmund Freud. It will begin by discussing who he is, his personal history, and then talk about his role in the development of psychoanalysis. Next it will discuss some of the individuals who greatly inspired Freud. Finally, it will move on to talk about some of those upon whom Freud was an influence.
Essay 2 Psychoanalysis is the method of psychological therapy originated by Sigmund Freud in which free association, dream interpretation, and analysis of resistance and transference are used to explore repressed or unconscious impulses, anxieties, and internal conflicts (“Psychoanalysis”). This transfers to analyzing writing in order to obtain a meaning behind the text. There are two types of people who read stories and articles. The first type attempts to understand the plot or topic while the second type reads to understand the meaning behind the text. Baldick is the second type who analyzes everything.
Vladimir Nabokov suffered a neurological disorder called Synthesia. In this disorder, some senses appear the form of other senses. For his specific case, it allowed him to see letters in color. The literary form of this disorder is writing when one sense describes another. Nabokov’s synthesia allowed for him to compose its’ literary form in a superior manner. Additionally, in its literary implication, synthesia generates juxtapositions of the senses. With and in juxtaposition, he uses the comparison of senses to describe one sense through another sense. Nabokov uses his Synthesia to enhance juxtapositions in order to capture essence of life through words. In his short story First Love, he illustrates importance of using the senses in descriptions
The entire basis of this book deals with communicating from both character to character, and narrator to reader, on a very high cerebral level. Because of this analytic quality of the book, the most important events also take place on such a high level. In fact, the major theme of the novel, that of the narrator searching for his past self, as well as the cognitive change between the "...
Before long, however, he faced patients whose disorders made no neurological sense. For example, a patient may have lost all feeling in one of their hands, but there is no sensory nerve that would numb their entire hand and nothing else when damaged. Freud’s search for a cause for such disorders set his mind running in a direction destined to change human self-understanding. He believed that some neurological disorders could have psychological causes. By observing patients with these disorders, Freud was led to his discovery of the unconscious (Myers & Dewall, pg# 573, 2015). Furthermore, he theorized that the lost feeling in the individual’s hand might have been caused by a fear of touching their