An Analysis Of Oliver Sacks The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat

In this novel The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, written by physician and neurologist Oliver Sacks, is about different patient cases that had suffered some type of neurological disorder. Sacks, as he is currently a professor at Columbia teaching Clinical Neurology, brings stories and experiences into novel form to show how some of these neurological problems can change the livelihood of those who have it and the ones that care for them the most. Throughout this novel, 24 different types of case studies are looked at and from those case studies, they are broken into 4 different types of chapters which are Losses, Excesses, Transports, and The World of The Simple. Each of these chapters serve as a segway to show how people’s lives were

Some diseases, such as Aphonia, Aphemia, Aphasia, Alexia, Apraxia, Agnosia, Amnesia, Ataxia (Sacks 7). One of the first patients that is observed is a Dr. P, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat, whom was a great musician that had a difficult time with visual images. Dr. P can not recognize items such as his shoe, foot, or even his wife. His problem was so bad that at one point, he graded his wife’s head and tried to put it on his as if it was his hat. One interesting case of Dr. P, whom had great musical intelligence, could do anything when he was singing, but once he stopped singing, he would forget and stop whatever he was doing. In a similar case called The Lost Mariner, a 19 year old boy named Jimmie G, was the radio operator for a submarine. His does not have the ability to recall memories anytime before the 1940s. Due to this damage to his brain, he will always believe he is 19 years old, but one of the interesting parts about this case is that even though he can not remember anything past the 1940s, he has an incredible mind for chemistry and math. This shows how this people that have had traumatic brain injuries or defects can still do amazing things even though parts of their brain does not

By organizing his stories in four chapters, Losses, Excesses, Transports, and The World of The Simple, it was easy to follow how each tied in with each other. In Losses and Excesses, the neurofunction was the main theme, as in Transports, the ideology of visions and hallucinations took shape, and finally in The Wold of The Simple, how brilliant minds can be turned into innocents as their mind is that of a child. This novel shows how even though people may be brilliant, they all have their cross to bare. Some greater than others, but everyone has something holding them