Hooray! You have added the first book to your bookshelf. Check it out now!
[−]
  • Search Digit-count Valid ISBN Invalid ISBN Valid Barcode Invalid Barcode
Blog this item

Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

By Oliver Sacks

(91)

| Paperback | 9780330294911

Like Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat?
Join aNobii to see if your friends read it, and discover similar books!

Sign up for free

Book Description

In his most extraordinary book, "one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century" (The New York Times) recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. Oliver Sacks's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat telContinue

In his most extraordinary book, "one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century" (The New York Times) recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. Oliver Sacks's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as retarded yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents.

If inconceivably strange, these brilliant tales remain, in Dr. Sacks's splendid and sympathetic telling, deeply human. They are studies of life struggling against incredible adversity, and they enable us to enter the world of the neurologically impaired, to imagine with our hearts what it must be to live and feel as they do. A great healer, Sacks never loses sight of medicine's ultimate responsibility: "the suffering, afflicted, fighting human subject."

Critics

  • Outpouchings

    It could be said that Oliver Sacks put neuropathology on the literary map. His first book Awakenings, about the stunning effects of the drug L-Dopa on patients afflicted with a form of Parkinsonism, attracted considerable critical acclaim from the li ... (read full critics)

    lrb published on Sat, 4 Sep 2010

  • The Sixth Sense

    Dr. Oliver Sacks is a British-trained neurologist who now practices in New York, where he is professor of clinical neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. With his earlier book, Awakenings (1973), which described the remarkable effect o ... (read full critics)

    nybooks published on Sun, 22 Aug 2010

6 Reviews

Login or Sign Up to write a review

  • I found this book very very difficult to read. Patient accounts were interspersed (rather generously) with philosophical reflections and the author's opinions. Although this was not a regretful read; i would certainly not be re-reading it, nor will i be getting another of his book. It took me over a ... (continue)

    I found this book very very difficult to read. Patient accounts were interspersed (rather generously) with philosophical reflections and the author's opinions. Although this was not a regretful read; i would certainly not be re-reading it, nor will i be getting another of his book. It took me over a year and a half just to get through this book because the language was quite dry and the concepts quite abstract.

    Is this helpful?

    The Underdog said on Oct 15, 2010 | Add your feedback

  • An amazing set of tales. It shows the extraordinary ways the brain works, but most of all it shows the ways people cope with their bodies and lifes when faced with a brain that doesn't work anymore as supposed to.

    Is this helpful?

    xpro said on Jun 1, 2008 | Add your feedback

  • honestly, i read this book because paul draper read it while he wrote songs in Six. it's so difficult for me, lots of neurology terms. however, it introduces a lot of amazing facts on neutrology and pathology. the brain is really a mysterious thing.

    Is this helpful?

    hermia said on Aug 21, 2007 | Add your feedback

  • Fascinating, eye-opening, entertaining, mind-boggling... beautifully written... a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction romp through some of neurology's most bizarre disorders...

    Is this helpful?

    NetLeaper said on Mar 5, 2007 | Add your feedback

  • Heard about this guy from my neuroscience class. We described the symptoms and how agnosia happens, but didn't read the book. Agnosia is incredibly fascinating.

    Is this helpful?

    eudaemonian said on Mar 15, 2006 | Add your feedback

  • i must say i'm not very fond of finding amusement in others' misery, but dr. sacks definitely has a way of looking at brighter side of life. a book of short stories by neurologist, dr. oliver sacks, on his patients.

    Is this helpful?

    m. said on Mar 5, 2006 | Add your feedback

Book Details

Improve data of this book

Prices Change currency & sellers

ISBN Edition List Sale Seller
9780330294911 Paperback $30.20 $10.33 The Book Depository
Other editions →
Added to Shelf Added to Wish List

Inline Translation Mode

Left click to navigate, right click to translate.

inline translation guide

or close

Inline translation is not ready for this page yet.

Inline translation mode.

Share this page with your friends.

The viewport has not loaded.