Reading neurologist and author Oliver Sacks’ monumental book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, was an enlightening experience. Although Sacks published this book initially in 1985, some of the case studies he includes date back to the 60’s. Many of the clients detailed in his book had unusual abilities or dysfunctions that I’ve heard of from popular culture and as a psychology student, but after reading his book, it is evident that these now familiar conditions were in their nascent discovery by movers and shakers such as Dr. Sacks at the time he was writing his case histories. Though the entire book was illuminating and inspiring in Dr. Sack’s reverence for his clients, three specific stories made a particular impression on me.

In Part Four: The World of the Simple, Dr. Sacks describes the numerical “communion” that two intellectually disabled brothers share with each other. They are able to name the day of week of any date given to them, can generate prime numbers up to 12-figures, and can instantaneously “count” a large quantity of objects, such as a box of matches spilling out onto the floor. The twins have been a source of amazement since they have no actual logical grasp of mathematics. Dr. Sacks supposes that they “feel” the numbers as a sort of landscape; and such as a person with superior musical intuition can tell whether a harmony is pleasing or special in its qualities, they can tell that a number is a prime or otherwise unique. Sadly when twins were later separated, they both lost their numerical abilities. This case made me wonder if we all have hidden mathematical potential, not in the traditional, strenuous way we think of mathematics, but in a more visual, relationship-oriented way.

A different case history that I found more disturbing than bizarre was about The Man Who Fell Out of Bed, in Part Three: Transports. As a medical student, Dr. Sacks was called by a nurse to see a patient that had been agitated and sitting on the floor. He had fallen after attempting to get out of bed, because he had lost any sense of ownership to his left leg. Earlier, the man had woken up to what he thought was a drunken New Year’s Eve joke, a severed leg in his bed. However, as Dr. Sacks questioned him about his own leg, the man became very distressed upon realizing that he could not recognize his leg as being a part of his body. This case reminds me of a possibly related mental disorder known as body integrity identity disorder, in which an individual feels disconnected to a part of their body, often to the extent of seeking amputation.

A case of Dr. Sack’s that resonated with me was presented in Part Two: Excesses. A man named Ray was referred for help with his Tourette’s syndrome, a neurological disorder that was below public awareness at the time. When Dr. Sacks first gave Ray a trial of Haldol to lessen his incessant motor and verbal tics, Ray responded with retarded psychomotor function, including being frozen in “mid-tic”. Rather than abandoning the idea of Haldol, Dr, Sacks engaged in three months of intensive therapy to see if psychological preparation might result in success. It did, but as Ray lived without his tics, he felt like his spontaneity and creativity had gone away as well. He decided to take his Haldol during the week when he worked, and to forgo it on the weekends when he could be with loved ones and pursue his interests like drumming. This “double existence” is common in people with other disorders, like bipolar disorder, ADHD, and schizophrenia. Some people may skip their medications for a short period, or even discontinue them due to the dampening effects that they can have on creativity and a feeling of well-being.