The Man with a Shattered World: The History of a Brain Wound [Paperback]

Aleksandr R. Luria (Author), Lynn Solotaroff (Translator), Oliver Sacks (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Originally published almost two decades ago, these fascinating and enormously informative case histories are now classics, each the product of almost 30 years of research by the late Soviet neuropsychologist Aleksandr Romanovich Luria...The Man with a Shattered World describes the heroic struggle of a young soldier trying to recover the memory and other mental capacities lost when a bullet entered his brain. Although different facets of mind are discussed in each [The Mind of a Mnemonist and The Man with a Shattered World] in a sense the two books are complementary, as memory is exaggerated in one and impaired in the other. What we know about the brain and mind is greatly enriched by either book.
--Elliot Valenstein (Boston Globe )

Zasetsky... in eloquent excerpts from a diary, comments on his struggle to recover the use of his brain... He could not even have written his journal--3,000 pages that he cannot read himself, composed with appalling effort over a quarter of a century-had he not learned to write automatically, without thinking of the process. It is a remarkable document, affecting in its simplicity, its pain, its inexorable determination. (Newsweek )

The book is equally as remarkable a document as Luria's The Mind of a Mnemonist...Writing is Zasetsky's laborious way of thinking. His achievement is that he has managed, after untold agonies and frustrations, to describe his unending confusions with terrible clarity. It would take a lobotomized Samuel Beckett to match it. (Time )

This is an important and remarkable book--the product of the relationship between two remarkable men, one a world authority on the brain, the other his unfortunate brain-damaged patient...Luria has created a fascinating and valuable review of the strange but precise working of the brain for both the general reader and the scientist. This little book will become a classic. (Library Journal )

A noted Russian neuropsychologist shares the remarkable story of his 25-year treatment of a young soldier who, in the aftermath of a serious wound, was forced to relearn even the simplest mental activities...The book emerges as an intriguing glimpse into the workings of the human brain--and an eloquent testament to one man's determination...Another of Luria's case histories, The Mind of a Mnemonist...traces the kafkaesque experiences of a man with such an extraordinary memory that he has difficulty forgetting anything. (Philadelphia Inquirer )

These two books are compassionate and vivid portraits--he called the 'neurological novels'--though they are in fact case histories of two patients whom Luria observed for 30 years. (Los Angeles Times )

The Soviet psychologist Aleksandr R. Luria (1902-77) describes the life and personality of a man (known as 'S') who was found to have a literally limitless memory and whose burden was that he was able to forget things only by an act of will...The same publisher reissued The Man with the Shattered World, Luria's study of a young soldier who suffers a catastrophic head injury and has to relearn almost everything. In 1973 one reviewer called it an intriguing and 'valuable review of the strange but precise working of the brain.' Both are translated by Lynn Solotaroff. (New York Times )

Language Notes

Text: English, Russian (translation)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (April 30, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674546253
• ISBN-13: 978-0674546257
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #349,928 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #46 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Disorders & Diseases > Strokes

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Brain, Brain Injuries, and Brain Functioning, February 27, 2000

By 

Carol Dickman - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man with a Shattered World: The History of a Brain Wound (Paperback)

This book is actually a collaboration between a famed psychologist and a Russian socldier who experienced a devastating head wound in battle in 1943. The soldier in vivid detail expresses how the head injury has permanently affected his life as well as how he processes perceptual information and communicates with the world. Very easy to read, I was clearly struck by the heroic measures made by the soldier to enlighten Luria and other readers on how his functioning was irrevocably altered by his brain injury. Normally complicated discussions on the brain are rendered easily understood in this book. I highly recommend this for anyone who works in the mental health field.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and moving, by a hero of Oliver Sacks, May 3, 2008

By 

Deb Oestreicher (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Man with a Shattered World: The History of a Brain Wound (Paperback)

I learned about this book from Oliver Sacks; he's often mentioned Luria as a hero and cited this book as an example of what he's trying to do. It is a case study--collaboration between doctor and patient--of a man who suffered severe effects from a brain injury incurred during the Second World War; he's lost most of his memory, including his education and how to do the simplest things; however his brain's intact when it comes to his personality. He's in the worst possible position, in a way, because he's conscious of all his deficiencies, but he's almost powerless to correct them.

Almost. But he can try. The part of him that can try is intact. This is a great book to read when you're depressed and feeling sorry for yourself because it makes you feel how lucky you are. The patient tries to get his life back back by writing about his experiences: what he can do, what he can't do, what he's trying to do. It's heartbreaking but also stunning, what can be accomplished by will alone--will is pretty much all the patient has left.

A fascinating and moving book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars needed editing, but heartbreaking and insightful, June 22, 2010

By 

Abeer Y. Hoque (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Man with a Shattered World: The History of a Brain Wound (Paperback)

Zasetsky is a bright young student who goes to war (WWII) and exits with a bullet to his brain, and devastating amnesia. Over the course of the next 25 years, he struggles to come to terms with, to explain, to regain his life, his past, his future, his identity, his purpose.

He writes and rewrites over 3000 pages of a journal even though the effort is beyond superhuman: he sometimes takes days to remember a single word or its meaning; a day of writing might yield a single paragraph; he cannot read or understand conversations; his right visual field is destroyed; and he is beset with an ever degrading memory, headaches, weakness, fatigue, depression, fear.

"I can't see the first letter of a world clearly. It doesn't come through clearly but looks as if it's been plucked, gnawed around the edges, and what's left are scattered points, quills or threads that flickr like a swarm."

Dr. A. R. Luria is a Russian neuropsychologist (and Oliver Sacks' mentor) who follows Zasetsky for 25 years. Combining his patient's journal and his own immense knowledge and compassion, he has compiled this little 130 page book which is heartbreaking, and yet not for a moment self pitying. His so called "digressions" are marvelous, insights into brain science and psychology, explained in elegant and clear language.

My only criticism is that the book could have done with some editing. The journal entries have a lot of repetition, and the sequence of sections doesn't always make sense. I also wish the "digressions" had been longer and more detailed. They could have been used to tie the book together, to show progression and narrative and tension.

That said, I recommend it to anyone interested in neuropsychology, the brain's workings, and memory.