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)

Neuroscience at its best

Memories help us remember who we are. When we lose that, [who] are we? Fascinating book.

Interesting.

Amazing how our minds work. Or don't work. As a lay-person, I enjoy listening to stories of the mind. The stories in this book are so intriguing.

Always enlightening

I have yet to have a low experience reading the words of Dr Sacks. Would have been a privledge to have shaken his hand. Brilliant, empathetic, inspiring

A little dense for the layman, but fascinating.

Clinical terms used where more recognizable (or maybe just less specific) labels may have sufficed, myopic vs shortsighted. I really found that his insights on the MR individuals were truly new and interesting to me. As someone with an interest in neuroscience, I was a little bored by some of the accounts. But it seemed that Mr. Sacks saved the best for last.

Very interesting case studies

This work increases one's understanding of brain disorders in terms the general public can comprehend, with a few "I'll look that up later" moments. The narrator presented the material in a matter-of-fact way, yet with compassion and humor (as often as possible). One senses genuine concern on the part of the author for those who touched his life, and who's lives he touched, and his deep desire to help improve their lives.

In depth neuropsychological clinical case studies

I am fascinated by the cases the author writes and have always been interested in the blurred line between the neurological and the psychological events that play out as pathologies. Excellent book that probes this phenomena.

A little outdated, but still amazing!

First off, I highly recommend this as a pre-read to The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons. That book kinda feels like the newer version of this book, adding a little more detail to the scientific side of things. I Iove the pacing on this book- each chapter has a conscious subject and story. And you can tell the author had a real passion for his clients and their stories. if more people read books like this, I truly believe we would all be more understanding and supportive of one another, regardless of our mental gifts or detriments.

A little disapointing

I have wanted to read The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat for a long time. I have seen it referenced by many other books on everything from neuroscience to the philosophy of evolution. So, I was a little disappointed that it did not address any of these areas. Instead, it seems to be a description of several psychiatric cases.

I was also a little disappointed that the author was not able to help most of the people in the book very much. I think there was one case where he or some of his co-workers found a treatment, or at least a workaround that helped somewhat, and in a couple of cases the patients themselves seemed to have made their own workarounds, but many of them apparently seemed to have to just muddle through as best they could.

I was encouraged, though, that the author came to see these unusual patients as people rather than objects of curiosity or primarily study subjects. Also, of course, most of these incidents took place a good while ago, and that is why they are cited so often in books on more recent advances.

Good

A bit dated especially in terminology but the overall message is timeless. An inquiry into the mind through the experiences of those with neurological conditions

Wonderfully read for these "abnormal" cases

Enjoyed the book and well-read. Fascinating and deeper look into neurological and developmental abnormalities and how/what they came to be in case studies.