The nonfiction work titled, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical
Tales, written by Oliver Sacks is a compilation of riveting stories about neurotic patients. Sacks’
purpose for writing this book is to show the personal, more humane side of neurosis, rather than
strictly the clinical side. There is also a significant argument presented to the reader, does the
medicine or the disease remove “the self” from the patient. The reader can conclude the answer
by reading the book and truly understanding what Sacks’ purpose was. The argument in this book
also serves as the theme, removal of one’s self. There are twenty-four stories served to the reader
in this book, each one equally as powerful as the last.
As previously stated, the pressing issue of the
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book is whether or not the removal of “the self” from the patient is blamed on neurosis or medicine and treatment.
Before answering this,
the reader must understand the term “the self.” Self in this context means the humanity of the
patient. Even though the patient may appear to be “crazy,” the patient is still human, the patient
still has feelings, and the patient still deserves to be treated as these things. This is why Sacks
writes this book as stories instead of case studies. One story that truly encompasses this is
headline of this book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. As soon as Dr. P walked into
Sacks’ office he was treated like a real person, not someone who was crazy. Sacks truly wanted
to help this person and figure out how to do so. When Dr. P had trouble identifying something,
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Sacks treated him as if he was perfectly fine, like a human being. This is just one out of countless
examples of Sacks’ kindness, and interest in preserving “the self.”
This book had a gigantic impact on my life. When I was first introduced to this book I
thought, “Wow, this is crazy, a man who puts his wife on like a hat!” That would be anyones first
reaction to a title like that. When you really read the book, really understand the
argument presented to you, it leaves you with a completely different attitude from the one you started with. I don't look at people with brain issues as “crazy,” I simply see them as a different person than myself. This is so because Sacks achieved the goal of his book, to present neurotic people as people, not as another item in the looney bin. A quote I thoroughly enjoyed from the book was, “I think that music, for him, had taken the place of image” (Sacks 20). This quote stuck out to me because it brought a new light to Dr. P’s situation. Since he had a hard time interpreting faces and other things, music acted as the part of him that was missing. In a way, music was the thing that fulfilled the gap in his brain. He loved music, it was his life, so for it to become his last dying act was inspiring. In conclusion, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales is a book that is worth reading. It contains twenty-four mind-blowing stories broken up into four influential parts. The author, Oliver Sacks, manages to tell these stories while simultaneously providing an argument that changes the readers entire state of mind. If this doesn't want to make someone pick up this amazing book, nothing will.
Distinction between Real or Fake: Symptoms of Postpartum Psychosis in The Book of Margery Kempe
In the following novel, “The Soloist” by Steve Lopez. The author captures the reader’s interest quickly by the first paragraph. Lopez talks about this mysterious man he encounters on the street, but ends up losing him the minute he looks away. Lopez also teaches his readers that to not judge a book by its cover, because it may surprise the reader of the story it has within.
The Web. 29 Oct 2013. Kravitz, Bob. Nothing Wrong with Keeping NFL Players Safe. Indianapolis Star: C. 1st.
In her personal essay, Dr. Grant writes that she learned that most cases involving her patients should not be only handled from a doctor’s point of view but also from personal experience that can help her relate to each patient regardless of their background; Dr. Grant was taught this lesson when she came face to face with a unique patient. Throughout her essay, Dr. Grant writes about how she came to contact with a patient she had nicknamed Mr. G. According to Dr. Grant, “Mr. G is the personification of the irate, belligerent patient that you always dread dealing with because he is usually implacable” (181). It is evident that Dr. Grant lets her position as a doctor greatly impact her judgement placed on her patients, this is supported as she nicknamed the current patient Mr.G . To deal with Mr. G, Dr. Grant resorts to using all the skills she
The patient (who now has a name, Sylvia) made an attempt to end her suffering by sticking her head in an oven, while her boyfriend tried to stop her and would take her yelling and struggling (which makes him feels isolated) over her attempted suicide. Sylvia continues to feel pain from not only her bone cancer, but from her emotionally abused past and present as told in the seventh track, “Two”,
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat is an informative book by Oliver Sacks which discusses a wide variety of neurological disorders of his patients. The book is divided into four sections which are Losses, Excesses, Transports, and The World of the Simple. Each section has its own theme and set of stories with different main character. There is no main character throughout the book except for the author who is Dr. Sacks sharing the stories and experiences of his patients. The theme of the section called Losses is the lack of function in the brain through a neurological disorder. Many people have neurologicasl diseases or disorders which causes them the inability of a function of the brain. Some examples which Sacks included were Aphonia,
Doctor William Chester Minor, a protagonist in The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester, was an unquestionable psychopath. His insanity has been confirmed by his deranged delusions and actions such as him murdering an innocent man and mutilating himself. Yet he still succeeded at being a highly praised surgeon and an intelligent scholar. These three facets of Minor’s life are strongly motivated by his personality. Minor’s story begins on the island of Ceylon, where he received an exceptional primary education, learned several indigenous languages, and became infatuated with the enticing local girls. For this reason, he was steered away from temptation and sent to America, by his parents. In the United States, Minor studied medicine at the prestigious Yale University and eventually joined the Union Army as a surgeon. Dr. Minor witnessed, while fighting in the Civil War, terrible events; the most traumatic occurrence being when he was forced to brand an Irish deserter. This experience sent Minor on a downward spiral. He began to illegally carry a gun, visit brothels, and show signs of paranoia; therefore, the doctor was discharged from the army and discreetly sent to an asylum. After his release, Minor traveled to London where he shot a man dead due to his paranoid delusions. Minor was sentenced an insane asylum and he spent the majority of the next thirty-eight years reading and secretly volunteering for the Oxford English Dictionary. James Murray, editor of the dictionary, eventually discovered Minor’s identity and they soon became close friends. Although Minor religiously read and acquired new knowledge, his mental condi...
Jamison describes another medical figure in her life that she referred to as Dr. M. Dr. M was Jamison’s primary cardiologist, a figure who is involved in some of the most intimate details of Jamison’s life. However, Jamison describes Dr. M by saying she, “…wasn’t personal at all” (14). Dr. M would actually record personal information about Jamison on a tape recorder, however, Jamison would hear Dr. M referring to her as “patient” instead of by her name. This example demonstrates that Dr. M was indeed putting in the minimal effort needed to keep her clients, however, no additional effort was put into the process of learning about her patients. Jamison says that, “…the methods of her mechanics [were] palpable between us…” (18). Dr. M would not even put any effort into disguising her lack of interest of getting to know Jamison. This atmosphere of apathy that is exuded by Dr. M naturally causes Jamison to retract from Dr. M, which creates an environment that is not good for cultivating
Since Pat Barker's Regeneration is set in a mental hospital, it seems fitting that questions about mental disease and the definition of sanity should be raised. At the very start of the book, Rivers and Bryce are discussing the case of Siegfreid Sassoon, a dissenting officer of the British army. As they discuss his diagnosis of "neurasthenia," Barker is laying the groundwork for one of Regeneration's many themes: no one is completely qualified to judge the sane from the insane, for insanity finds its way into us all. The ambiguity surrounding the definition and treatment of neurasthenia offers just a glimpse into the ever-changing and highly subjective world of mental evaluation.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. "Interpreter Of Maladies." The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Vol. 8. Boston [etc.: Bedford-St. Martin's, 2003]. 1024-1028. Print.
Discuss at least three things that impressed you or caused you to think differently as a result of reading the book.
Trying to read this book again without biases was difficult but rewarding. Reading this book again really made me realize what it was I fell in love with in the first place. The vivid descriptions, thoughtful dialogue, and fast paced action really feed your senses. This book feeds the imagination, the body and the soul.
The husband is able to provide for his family with a position in an office, logically his intellect is not in question; his emotional stability has defiantly been affected. Therefore, this brings the author to rely on the husband’s perspective to divulge the fundamental components of the story using a third-person narration. For a year the husband thought that his wife had been kidnapped, yet he never checked her person effects to see if anything was missing. Only because the mother needed additional spices did the husband check for the jewelry that he advised that the wife stash in the top cabinet in case there was an intruder (1995, p. 587). Once the missing jeweler was discovered the husband knew that the wife then abandoned not only him, but also their the young son.
Brady can be a real jerk. It was a cold, cloudy, and windy fall afternoon. We would be having a football game later that evening. We were playing two hand touch football on the small field that is just south of the normal field when Sam caught the ball and was pushed out of bounds. Brady ran up to him and, even though the play was over and everyone had stopped, through him onto the ground.
A self is some sort of inner being or principle, essential to, but not identical with, the person as whole. It is that in a person that thinks and feels. The self is usually conceived in philosophy as that which one refer to with the word “I”. It is that part or aspects of a person that accounts for personal identity through time. In spite of all the ways one can change with time, the self is invariably same through time. A self is what is supposed to account for the fact that an individual is same person today as he/she was at the age of five, given that all his characteristics have changed over time. For instance, compared to his childhood, this individual is stronger, taller, and smarter; he has different aspirations and dreams, different thoughts and fears, his interests and activities are remarkably different. Yet, he is still the same ...