The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

 

Oliver Sacks collection of case studies reads more like an anthology of fantastic tragedies, adventures, and more.  Sacks himself compares it to Arabian Nights which is very apt.  His writing takes conditions and topics that were previously stigmatized and instead inspires a sense of wonder unparalleled in any scientific writing I have ever experienced.  Many a time I haver begun reading a book on some phenomenon or condition and failed to make it all the way through, partially owing to my own lack of commitment in such endeavors but also largely to the dry and purely objective nature of the writing.  The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat held me like nothing else ever has.

Different, Not Less

A central theme of Sacks writings seems to be that of the many patients he explores none are simply of a lesser experience of personhood than the normal human model.  Rather, they are travelers to distant lands and fantastical worlds of whose sights and sensations likes we can only speculate.  This is most emphasized in the chapters which speak of gains of function conditions.  In these, we are introduced to some individuals who find their conditions essential to the winding paths of their lives, in some cases even turning down medication and treatment (to some degree or another).  Witty Ticky Ray was one such individual who found his Tourette’s indispensable to his creative efforts.  I will admit that I, like many, had thought of conditions such as Tourette’s to be purely losses.  Sure they had gained their ticks, but that those ticks could improve their lives and even shape their personalities had not occurred to me.  After reading this book, I would love nothing more than for Dr. Sacks to shatter my perception of every condition and show me the hidden worlds of those afflicted.

Patients as Individuals

I found it very distressing that Dr. Sacks had to recall neurologists of the 1800s in order to speak on the humanization of neurological patients.  With all we gained in understanding of human physiology and psychology as the years past, how could we have regressed so in our view of patients and the struggle of their lives?  Even today, having read much scientific literature, I can attest that the patient is too often lost; reduced to a list of symptom and a pathological presentation.  Indeed, even in my clinical experience I’ve seen patients snubbed, their accounts discarded, stripped for strictly the objective details.  I find myself easily sympathetic to these individuals, perhaps not yet jaded by repetition and an overabundance of experience.  Until reading this book, that is what I assumed would inevitably happen as my career went on: that I would become cold and indifferent to those patients that colored my days, leaving them gray and as spreadsheets rather than the mosaics they are.  If in all his experience Dr. Sacks still so passionately advocates for his patients, I myself can still care decades down the line.

Folley on the road to understanding

Dr. Sacks’ honesty was extremely compelling to me.  Frequent admittance of not knowing perforated each page.  These were not out of ineptitude or laziness, however, but the very heart of the scientific process.  In medicine and science on whole, one who has no questions is lost and indifferent.  There is always more to know, to ask, and questions are far more abundant than answers.  I find this to be a beautiful thing, that there is no end to the search and there is always more to explore; a never ending frontier.  Dr. Sacks exemplifies this ideals in the disposition with which he discusses each patient.  His frequent open questions make the reader wonder if there have been answers since his writing, and if not the mind wonders on how such questions could be explored in the modern day.  Furthermore, this adds an air of humility and relatability to his writing.  Oliver Sacks is not an untouchable, infallible intellectual towering over his audience.  He is fascinated, passionate, and ever inquisitive, sharing his excitement with those who would learn of the infinite worlds that comprise neurology.