Oliver Saslow's View On Perception And Perception

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The brain is one of the most enigmatic organs in the human body. It can adapt to all types of physiological conditions and be programmed to see the environment in a certain type of way, whether it is deliberate or not. Oliver Sacks discusses the state of being blind and the role of sensory functions in his essay, The Mind’s Eye. He discusses the concept of connections and perceptions, in which the former leads to the latter. A connection is the interaction between the senses simultaneously, while perception is defined as the interpreted reality caused by the connection of the available senses. Perception is partially constructed by one’s environment, which allows the creation of different interpretations of reality. In blind and sighted individuals, …show more content…

Based upon the accounts he introduced and explained, to see the environment is to willingly use all available senses and to interact with all spaces, consciously and physically. The validity of reality is then brought into question, which Sack suggests that those with sight may be blind to reality. Those with sight are prone to rely heavily on specific connections and ignore other vital ones. Ignored connections may deny unimaginable sensory enrichment and enable narrowed perceptions, which is how sighted individuals remain blinded and unaware of the gravity of oneself and the physical space one inhabits.
Humans have five senses. Sight, taste, smell, touch, and hearing are what paint reality, but the lack of one these senses, particularly sight, can enrich the remaining four. The remaining senses become a crutch, or prosthetic leg that constitute the gateway to one’s environment. Yet for these senses to construct one’s environment non visually, the four senses left must work …show more content…

Sight is not only to have a visual image of one’s environment and reality, but to be aware of all connections and use them to have the most broad and open perception. In his essay, Sacks suggests that sighted individuals are blind to reality because people tend to ignore connections within themselves, relying heavily on others. By ignoring these connections, a limited perception is developed, an interpreted reality that does not use all the senses at one’s disposal. With blindness, Sacks describes how these individuals have a more open and enriched reality and environment because they utilize all of the senses. By doing so, “Dennis...had increased his sensitivity to moods in other people, and to the most delicate nuances in their speech and self-expression… He felt he had become far more sensitive to others’ emotional states since losing his sight, for he was no longer taken in by visual appearances, which most people learn to camouflage” (8). Perception is an interpreted reality, but by having literal sight is not to have sight to every aspect and detail of one’s environment. Not using all connections builds an inaccurate reality, an environment that is not truly seen and is brought upon by self-deception. To not see reality, or have perception, is to not see the world and environment at all. Yet it is still possible to share perceptions with someone else, and to become enriched perceptually by another person’s

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