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

In the book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales Oliver Sacks depicts various stories from his time working as a Physician and Neurologist. Unlike most case studies, Sacks presents these patients in a way that makes them seem more than just clinical studies. He shows the humanity beneath the “defects” of these people. This is done in a way that makes this book not only interesting to read and informative, but also thought provoking. He makes his reader reevaluate these patients, seeing past the problems and towards the underlying brilliance of these people.

Oliver Sacks is a Physician, Psychiatrist, Professor of Neurology and Author who has written 12 books. He studied at The Queen’s College in Oxford and the University of California, Los Angeles. He is best known for his books made up of case studies that he has observed over the years including, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, written in 1985. It is his 4^th book and instantly hit the best-sellers list shortly after its publication.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is broken up into a short story format with four main sections. These sections organize the stories into stories about lost brain functions, excess brain functioning, hallucinations and mentally disabled patients. Each chapter of the book tells a new story; although every story is distinct, they all have one theme in common: Sacks represents the person in each case as more than just a subject. He tries to show the reader how each patient is special; and despite the issues they may have, they are human. He even writes, “ We paid far too much attention to the defects of our patients…. And far too little to what was intact or preserved” (Pg. 183).

Sacks writes about patients such as a blind woman who cannot feel her hands and a young girl with a brain tumor who has vivid “day dreams” about her home in India. He also writes about people suffering from Aphasia, Tourette Syndrome, Memory loss, “Cupid’s Disease” and much more. All these stories are very interesting. Sacks does a great job of explaining what he observed so the reader gets a clear view of each case and the events that took place while he watched his patients. He also does a fantastic job of breaking down what is going on into plain language, often avoiding words used mainly in neuroscience and psychology. However, occasionally I found he would discuss things that I was not familiar with, so then I would Google it. He did this most often in the postscript sections at the end of almost every story. Also in the postscript sections, Sacks tries to wrap up the stories of each case. But, that is hard to do often because Sacks sees these patients once or twice and then never again, or the story ends abruptly and tragically. 

This particular book is “written in a lighter, more informal style” (Oliver Sacks, oliversacks.com) which makes the book mostly a light, informative read. I also found that because of his writing style each case was easier to understand. His style also made the book feel less like you were reading a series of case studies and more like you were reading short stories.

I highly recommend this book, especially if you have any interest in psychology or neuroscience. Though, even if you don’t, I still recommend it. I think it gives you a great insight into the lives of those with neurological disorders. It also makes you think about the brain and how complex it is and how we know so little about it. Finally, it reminds you of how lucky you are to have a healthy, normal, functioning brain. No only that, but this book is also intriguing and paints people you normally dismiss as “sick”, “retarded” or “gone” in a new light.