The Mind's Eye

By: Oliver Sacks

Narrated by: Oliver Sacks, Richard Davidson

In The Mind’s Eye, Oliver Sacks tells the stories of people who are able to navigate the world and communicate with others despite losing what many of us consider indispensable senses and abilities: the power of speech, the capacity to recognize faces, the sense of three-dimensional space, the ability to read, the sense of sight. For all of these people, the challenge is to adapt to a radically new way of being in the world.

There is Lilian, a concert pianist who becomes unable to read music and is eventually unable even to recognize everyday objects, and Sue, a neurobiologist who has never seen in three dimensions, until she suddenly acquires stereoscopic vision in her fifties.

There is Pat, who reinvents herself as a loving grandmother and active member of her community, despite the fact that she has aphasia and cannot utter a sentence, and Howard, a prolific novelist who must find a way to continue his life as a writer even after a stroke destroys his ability to read.

And there is Dr. Sacks himself, who tells the story of his own eye cancer and the bizarre and disconcerting effects of losing vision to one side.

Sacks explores some very strange paradoxes—people who can see perfectly well but cannot recognize their own children, and blind people who become hyper-visual or who navigate by “tongue vision.” He also considers more fundamental questions: How do we see? How do we think? How important is internal imagery—or vision, for that matter? Why is it that, although writing is only five thousand years old, humans have a universal, seemingly innate, potential for reading?

The Mind’s Eye is a testament to the complexity of vision and the brain and to the power of creativity and adaptation. And it provides a whole new perspective on the power of language and communication, as we try to imagine what it is to see with another person’s eyes, or another person’s mind.

Critic reviews

A Financial Times Best Book
A Globe and Mail Best Book
A New York Times Notable Book

“Compelling. . . . Uplifting. . . . One more chance to bask in an extraordinary man’s irrepressible belief in the human potential to do more than survive the travails of our fragility.”
—Edmonton Journal

“Awe-inspiring. . . . A deeply moving book.”
—Norman Doidge, The Globe and Mail

“Graceful.”
—The New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice)

“Sacks invites readers to imagine their way into minds unlike their own, encouraging a radical form of empathy. . . . The Mind’s Eye expresses a stubborn hope.”
—Los Angeles Times

“Frank and moving. . . . His books resonate because they reveal as much about the force of character as they do about neurology.”
—Nature

“It is a measure of his artistry that Sacks slots such funk and anxiety into a book that’s mostly about the plasticity and adaptability of the human brain; a book that busily celebrates the indomitability of people.”
—The Telegraph

Another great one!

I love hearing Oliver Sacks's voice in his audiobooks. My husband and I have been through many of his books and this is the first I know of where he read a whole chapter. This book is intriguing, insightful and will make you ponder sight in a way you may have never done before.

What is Prosopagnosia? How does it affect life?

In a review by “The Guardian” it alludes “we are all close to being someone else.” The 3 lb. mass---aka the brain---is explored fully with Dr. Sacks and thus the opaque is made pellucid. Even now posthumous author Sacks humble words and melodic British accent resonates in my ear (via audible) and "The Mind’s Eye” embodied ichor.

My pre-med studies in anatomy and physiology at Oxford had not prepared me in the least for real medicine. Seeing patients, listening to them...questions about the quality of life and whether life was even worth living in some circumstances.

— Oliver Sacks, MD

Reading and listening (via audible) to “The Mind’s Eye” on cases regarding agnosia to prosopagnosia (Dr. P) and patients that seem to imitate “hunchback of Notre dame” characters. Dr. Oliver Sacks has a “au courant” sense of observation—as we discover from his written patient records. One engaging case was Lilian Kallir (concert pianist).

Some would describe Dr. Sacks as man with a Santa Claus beard, yet after witnessing Sacks “writing his notes on his arm” such characteristics embody the human spirit of his genius. “The Mind’s Eye” does not scream and it instructs gently---like the brush of a butterfly wing on bare skin. Brilliant! Buy, ponder and share.

Not his best

Maybe he's running out of material but this one didn't hold my interest as much as "The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat"

Ehhhhh

Does not stand up to Dr. Sacks previous work. Unfortunately, Dr. Sacks was unable to narrate a large part of the book due to his poor eyesight. While Dr. Sacks still demonstrates his vast intelligence, the stories were not nearly as engrossing as prior work.

good in parts

The chapter describing his own loss is the most compelling. Other parts are flatter than his other books, simply not as vivid or compelling. Worth it if only for the good chapter

Sack's delivers

This was my 4th Sacks book. This one focuses on the human ocular system. Case presentations are done with great respect to the patients and the human body.

Great stories

I wish that Dr. Sacks had narrated all the stories. His voice is unique and wonderful.

fascinating and compassionate

sacks has a way of looking at things both sideways and straight on. he is never shy about the difficult parts but his explanations are rife with a curiosity that transforms your perspective, even when talking about his own loss of sight

Blindness

First, I must admit that I am a fan of Oliver Sacks and have read all of his books. My favorite remains "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat," but this book is unique among his offerings. In this book he has a number of chapters about blindness and its meaning for individuals. He then takes a chapter to describe his own fall into blindness. As always, Sacks combines a knowledge of the literature in neurobiology, psychology and psychiatry to shed light on his personal experience. This book lacks, perhaps, the charm of his earlier books, but it is informative in a much deeper way. It might be helpful to have some background in neurobiology, but it isn't necessary to gain great benefit. The final chapter deals with what he has learned about perception in this context and to what degree to we configure our own reality and world. Very informative. The reading of Sacks and Richard Davidson is very good.

Visual as well as psychological

Along with his usual brilliance oliver sax describes vision and perception is our minds and bodies. As a blind clinician i found this book just as enlighting about my own vvisual quirks just as much as it taught me about psychology. This book was interesting and academic and read well.