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The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales Paperback – April 2, 1998

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Oliver Sacks (Author)
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4.3 out of 5 stars 564 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Touchstone (April 2, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0684853949
  • ISBN-13: 978-0684853949
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (564 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsTruly incredible tales and a great read
By Dennis Littrell HALL OF FAMEVINE VOICE on November 18, 2004
Format: Paperback
It is utterly fascinating to know that, as a result of a neurological condition, a man can actually mistake his wife for a hat and not realize it. It is also fascinating to learn that a stroke can leave a person with the inability to see things on one side of the visual field--which is what happened to "Mrs. S." as recalled in the chapter, "Eyes Right!"--and yet not realize that anything is missing. In both cases there was nothing wrong with the patient's eyes; it was the brain's processing of the visual information that had gone haywire.

Neurologist Oliver Sacks, who has a wonderful way with words and a strong desire to understand and appreciate the human being that still exists despite the disorder or neurological damage, treats the reader to these and twenty-two other tales of the bizarre in this very special book. My favorite tale is Chapter 21, "Rebecca," in which Dr. Sacks shows that a person of defective intelligence--a "moron"--is still a person with a sense of beauty and with something to give to the world. Sacks generously (and brilliantly) shows how Rebecca taught him the limitations of a purely clinical approach to diagnosis and treatment. Although the child-like 19-year-old didn't have the intelligence to "find her way around the block" or "open a door with a key," Rebecca had an emotional understanding of life superior to many adults. She loved her grandmother deeply and when she died, Rebecca expressed her feelings to Sacks, "I'm crying for me, not for her...She's gone to her Long Home." She added, poetically, "I'm so cold. It's not outside, it's winter inside. Cold as death...She was a part of me. Part of me died with her" (p. 182). Rebecca goes on to show Dr.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsFascinating
By M. Broda on October 3, 1998
Format: Paperback
The first thing I did after reading this book was to hop back onto Amazon.con and order "Awakenings" and "An Anthropolgist on Mars." This book was recommended by one of my philosophy professors in college about six years ago. Well, it took me six years to pick it up, and I don't regret the decision. As a complete layperson, my eyes were opened to what a complex piece of machinery the brain is. Sack's personal perspective on these patients disorders is what takes this interesting material and makes it fascinating reading. The only problem I had with this book was that I was disappointed to see most every chapter end. I wanted to know more about most every case. I only rank it 4 instead of 5 for that reason (It could have been more in-depth) and a couple of the cases were simply mildly interesting rather than mind-bending. It's almost imcrompehensible to perceive the world and one's self in the same manner as some of these unfortunate people. I was especially intrigued by one of the questions Sack's brings up concerning the case history discussed in the chapter "The Lost Mariner." A man can remember nothing for more than a few seconds. His entire life, all of his experiences are gone almost as soon as they are past. "He is a man without a past (or future), stuck in a constantly changing, meaningless moment," Sacks writes. Sacks then ponders the question that will stop your heart: "Does he have a soul?" If you have ever been bothered by the question of the spiritual nature of man, Sacks --who stops well short of reaching any theological conclusions -- will disturb you with this material. From that standpoint, he is brilliant at informing by simply forcing the reader to ask questions of his or her self...Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsA little old, but still interesting
By Atheen on July 25, 2002
Format: Paperback
I used to work on a neurology ward when I first started in health care, and the many sad stories that I was privy to during that time has encouraged me to keep up with some of the research in brain and mind science.
Oliver Sacks' book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat was first published in 1970 and has been reprinted several times with new material added. The book is an interesting collection of stories of individuals with neurological deficits that highlight and clarify how the normal brain works. The author approaches his study with a compassion for his patient's troubled existence, and where the patients are content with their lot, he prudently leaves well enough alone, something not all MD's are willing to do. He also appreciates what his patients have to teach him about life and even about the practice of medicine itself. His ability to learn from others considered "unfortunate" or mentally "defective" makes the book a very insightful work.
While the author's extensive clinical practice has allowed him to make some interesting statements about what parts of the brain are involved with different mental functions, what he fails to do in this book is to provide anything approaching testable ideas or actual research supporting his theories. The colorful stories are well worth reading as moral parables, but a better book on current mind and brain research might be Ramachandran's Phantoms in the Brain. One might begin with the Sacks book, which is easy to read, and proceed to the more extensive work by Ramachandran.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsI loved this book because it gave an emotional view of ...

I loved this book because it gave an emotional view of something (brain disease/abnormalities....) that's viewed almost exclusively in a scientific fashion. Read more

Published 2 hours ago by Patricia Kerrin
3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

Very interesting, but more research paper style than I was expecting.

Published 1 day ago by Melissa Davis
5.0 out of 5 starsWould Recommend!

I bought this for my neurology course and usually I would return it or donate the books to my library but this book was great! Read more

Published 4 days ago by Ashleigh
1.0 out of 5 starsTerrible book

There's nothing exciting about this book and it absolutely bored me. It felt as if the writer needed to write a book and rushed to put stories together just to finish it. Read more

Published 5 days ago by Saul Woodford
3.0 out of 5 starsA fairly interesting book!

I probably would not have read this book, except that it was a book club pick. It is a series of case studies by the doctor/neurologist, Oliver Sacks. Read more

Published 7 days ago by Sandra K. Heinzman
1.0 out of 5 starsOne Star

Sorry - boring, couldn't read.

Published 10 days ago by Janine Belveal
3.0 out of 5 starsWhile I find medical nonfiction interesting, this book just didn't...

This wasn't exactly the book I thought it was going to be.

I was looking for something a little lighter. While mental illness, dementia, etc. are not funny, this Dr. Read more

Published 16 days ago by blu_canary
3.0 out of 5 starsNot my genre

Not my cup of tea, well written.

Published 18 days ago by RIck JD Hahn
4.0 out of 5 starsRemarkable psychological case studies

At times Dr Sacks goes into a drawn out almost stream of consciousness about a particular patient which can get a bit weary and philosophical but the actual accounts of his... Read more

Published 20 days ago by Austin Reader
5.0 out of 5 starsRevealing

Oliver Sacks stories are wonderful revealing the quirks of the human mind. I remember most Sacks care for his patients.

Published 22 days ago by Kevin

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