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

By: Oliver Sacks

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Oliver Sacks - introduction

Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

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' 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' 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".

PLEASE NOTE: Some changes have been made to the original manuscript with the permission of Oliver Sacks.

©1970, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985 Oliver Sacks (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Dr. Sacks's best book.... One sees a wise, compassionate and very literate mind at work in these 20 stories, nearly all remarkable, and many the kind that restore one's faith in humanity." ( Chicago Sun-Times)

"Dr. Sacks's most absorbing book.... His tales are so compelling that many of them serve as eerie metaphors not only for the condition of modern medicine but of modern man." ( New York magazine)

Simplifying of a "diffycult" subject

Any additional comments?

Very interesting. Informative. Easy to listen to. This book presents a subject that traditionally requires a massive educational process to enable you to debate it, listen to it and read it, in a very understandable way to people not familiar to the field of psychiatry. It is really well written and very well narrated. A definite thumbs-up from me!

Interesting Enough

The book was interesting enough; I found the individual case-studies absorbing, but it got very dry and text-booky when going into detail surrounding the various medical conditions and that bored me.

Overall – not bad for 5$

Surprisingly well-written, thoughtful and touching

I had assumed that this book would be an interest, yet depressing and clinical examination of fascinating brain disorders. I was wrong. Oliver Sacks has written an uplifting, and unexpectedly beautiful book here.

Could make you wonder who you are

What makes a person? Are we the result of our experiences, relying on our accumulated memories to shape ourselves. Are we defined by our friends, family and people we associate with. Is the way we think, reason, or how we see and interpret the world around us. Do our actions truly speak for us?

What if one, or several of these characteristics was taken away. if you couldn't form new memories, started to lose the ones you had, or you couldn't recognize your friends or family. What if you lost control of your actions and emotions. Imagine if even the way you thought and saw the world was changed.

If the very thing that makes you, you was taken away, who do you become? Are you still truly yourself, are you someone else or could you become a nobody.
These are some of the questions examined by the author as we're presented with antidotes on several of his different neurological patients.

Some of the memorable ones that stand out are:
-Man who can't distinguish people from objects, tried to wear his wife as a hat.
-Man who can't form new memoires and restarts every few minutes. How going to church and the gardens bring out his true self.
-Women who can't see the left half of anything. Taught herself to spin so she could spot see the missing half of her plate or face.
-Woman who hears Irish music in her head from her childhood as a radio station.
-How the unfortunately termed "idiots savants" see numbers.

Underneath a stories are tales of the strength of the human condition. especially the first half showing how patients overcome their condition or learn to function with them. Although not all end in happiness.

The antidotes are interesting and the expositions can draw on a little long and dry. If your curious about human behaviour or find any of the I mention above interesting give it a read.

Asks basic questions about what makes us human

Fascinating true tales of some of the strange mental disorders that can occur when one has experienced brain damage. Wonderfully well written, only occasionally getting to clinical/technical for me. Mostly, the basic humanity of these patients comes through, their need to connect with others and be accepted for who they are, not for who they are not. What makes this book truly great is how Sacks goes beyond a clinical interest in the lives of his patients, to consider their inner lives. For a few, those who seem to have completely lost touch with reality, Sacks raises disturbing questions of whether they still have "souls"--by which I understood him to be asking if they could be considered as sentient beings. Like the best science fiction, this book asks basic questions about what defines us as humans.

[I listened to this as an audio book performed by Jonathan Davis, who did an excellent job. i listened at 1.15 speed]

Powerful and Insightful

This was a deep and introspective reflection into the humanity of neurology. The review of "deficits," but more importantly, powers of the mind is a journey I did not realize I needed to traverse, but am delighted having had the opportunity through this book. This redefining of the clinical history is touching and transformational. While some of the language may be dated, this does not detract from the deep and personal questions these stories will encourage of its readers. Highly recommend.

Clinical but still understandable!

A fantastic narration by the professional reader.
The tales were just enough information to be engaging. Clinical yet able to follow easily.

A good Neuropsychology read

I can see why some people either didn't like the book so much, or found it hard to read; because Dr. Sacks sometimes makes one wonder if he himself suffered from occasional epileptic seizures, thus; writing not only in a scientific jargon but also in a Shakespearean poetic manner.

The audio book was a bit hard to follow, I found myself pausing, researching, and rewinding a lot.
But nevertheless, a must read for anybody studying or interested in Neuropsychology in particular.

The magnificent stories make you think about all the blessings that we take their existence for granted.
I have lots of thoughts in my head, one is of atheism. Seems like one is atheist by choice and not born with. I find myself wanting to know more, to see what it takes for one to decide to be one, where another decides to believe.

Having my share of mental struggle myself, the line that most resonated in my mind is: "The lack of social support and sympathy the patients with disorders of hidden senses face, is an additional trial".

I wish I, not only have met Dr. Sacks, but also worked with.

good read for student of neurology

as a medical student and hopeful neurologist, I found this to be a truly enjoyable book

Fascinating brain study

very interesting stories or cases of mental illness of a special nature,, and the analysis by a knowledgeable professional. Mostly leaves me wondering how to extract the unique talents of people and provide an opportunity for them to shine in a useful meaningful way.