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

All behavior and bodily functions are processed though interactions with the brain. In his book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, Oliver Sacks discusses some of the ways that behavior is influenced for biological processes. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a chapter of this book entitled Cupid’s Disease and explain the underlying biological and psychological processes experienced by Sacks patients. In the case of Cupid’s Disease, the behavior being discussed is affected by a bacterial disease called neurosyphilis. This current paper will discuss the case in the book, the basics of neurosyphilis, its affected anatomical structures, diagnosis, and how it can be effectively treated. Through this examination, one may have a better understanding of how biology is the basis of behavior.

In Cupid’s Disease of Sacks book, 90 year old Natasha K. believes she is experiencing complications with syphilis. When she was young, she worked in a brothel where she first contracted the disease. Through further testing by Sacks, it was confirmed that she did, in fact, have syphilis. Natasha’s friends noticed a happier, more youthful Natasha and thought something was wrong with her. She found herself flirting with men, experiencing a freeing of inhibition, and experiencing a livelier mood. Natasha enjoyed the feeling so much that she did not want to be cured. She questioned Sacks on if there was a way to keep the feeling and cure the disease. Sacks treated the symptoms of her neurosyphilis with penicillin and Natasha was cured while being able to maintain her mood. This makes a happy ending for her story (Sacks, 1998).

Sacks compares Natasha K. to Miguel O. who suffers from the same disease and also exhibits ...

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...tetracycline have been employed as alternative treatments (LaFond & Lukehart, 2006).

In short, neurosyphilis is a part of the latency stages of syphilis. Its symptoms are easily treated and eliminated when the disease is detected and properly treated. If diagnosed with syphilis, one should quickly seek treatment through antibiotics. Left untreated, syphilis can severely impact quality of life in that it impairs the central nervous system and long term complications with the disease can possibly cause death (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , 2013). Luckily for Natasha K., her neurosyphilis was detected and treated with penicillin with the help of Sacks. Not only was she cured, she maintained the “mild disinhibition” (Sacks, 1998, p.104) that she wanted. Her case is just one of the many cases in Sacks book that explain the neurological basis of behavior.

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