The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales - Oliver Sacks

A rather odd book choice on reflection, but the title was too intriguing to pass this one over. Admittedly on scanning the blurb a case of medical histories is not exactly what I was expecting…though I’m not really sure what I was expecting with a title like this I suppose! That said, the account of case histories that unfolded, bizarre, devastating and fascinating in equal measure, most certainly did not disappoint.

Neurologist Oliver Sacks has collated a series of truly extraordinary case histories which recount the experience of patients battling various neurological disorders. Meet Dr P. the man who mistook his wife for a hat. Dr P. whose life has progressed into one of abstraction fails to see the whole person, the whole scene and the whole world in general. Instead he must use music to feel, to recognise and to survive. The ‘Disembodied Lady’ feels she has lost her body and must ultimately learn to be again, while Mr MacGregor, living life at a twenty degree tilt, has to learn to live and to see the world from a whole new angle.

These are just three from a host of fascinating cases, each of which has in some way served to advance the course of the medical profession. Sacks seeks to herald the return of a humanistic element, of interaction and engagement with the individual behind the illness. Sacks also raises a series of uncomfortable thoughts on the one hand; the fragility of the mind, the lack of control and questions of the future that awaits. On the other however, he presents a group of individuals who each testify to the endless possibility of the human mind and imagination at overcoming adversity, the benefits of persevering, and the ingenuity with which we may each approach the world around us.

With very little in the way of biological or neurological knowledge, I was initially concerned this was going to be a struggle. Fear not! Sack's skill at storytelling eases the reader right into the neurological world he is concerned with. His aim is to reveal the deeply human element behind the cases, and in this he is altogether successful. In all, a fascinating read not to be passed over!