The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: By Oliver Sacks

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: By Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks wrote a collection of narratives titled, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, we see the suffering of those with neurological diseases, their attempts to cope with these diseases and the conclusions that Sacks makes on their conditions. Sacks is the physician in these narrative stories that tell about his studies of the person behind neurological deficits. Sacks’ interests are not only in the disease itself but also in the person. He writes these stories to teach the reader about the identity of the victims of neurological diseases. He describes the experience of the victim as he or she struggles to survive their disease. Oliver Sacks presents numerous stories where neurological disorders have completely impaired a person’s physical ability; the ability to remember, the ability to comprehend, the ability to speak and hear. These patients, despite their losses, never lost their spiritual ability. The ability to rejoice, to appear spiritually fulfilled, was never lost, just hidden. An example of this was seen in “The Lost Mariner”. Jimmie had suffered from amnesia and could not remember anything for more than two minutes, except things that were 30 years old. Jimmie had no continuity, no reality. He lived in the eighties, but his mind was in the thirties. Jimmie would erupt in panic attacks of confusion and disbelief, only to forget them a few minutes later. After frequent visits with Dr. Sacks, however, Jimmie began to find some continuity, some reality, in what Dr. Sacks referred to as “absoluteness of spiritual attention and act” , Jimmie’s spirit, regardless of the brain disorders, was never completely lost. The narrative “The Lost Mariner” proved to me that there really is a person beneath these neurological diseases. I had always believed that the disease almost became whom the person was and took over their life. In some cases that is true but this narrative made me realize that Jimmie spirit was still under that disease. All of the stories that Dr. Sacks discusses were very interesting and informative. In the case “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” the patient was Dr. P a distinguished musician and teacher at a music school. This was where his strange problems were first noticed. Dr. P would not recognize students and as it progressed he could not recognize faces at all. He would mistake parking meters and fire hydrants for people and other mistakes such as those that he would just laugh off. His music was as good as ever and he had never felt better. He went to an ophthalmologist and there was nothing wrong with his eyes so he went to a neurologist. Sacks performed many tests with him to figure out what was his problem. During the tests his eyes would dart from one thing to another, picking up tiny features. He wouldn’t see the whole thing. He kept making mistakes, even by mistaking his wife’s head for a hat. His other senses took the place of his vision and he was able to somewhat cope. Dr. Sacks concluded to Dr. P that he could not tell him what was wrong but to make music the center of his life because that’s what makes his vision unimportant. Later Sacks says that there was a degenerative process, massive tumor, in the visual parts of his brain which was the cause for all of the vision mistakes and embarrassments. Dr. P lived and taught music all the way to last days of his life. The narrative “The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat” makes you think because this man lost such a vital sense that most people would suffer without and he is still attempting to continue his everyday as if nothing was wrong. His vision caused embarrassment to him because he would talk to grandfather clocks thinking that they were people and make other mistakes similar to that. Despite all this Dr. P remained a very happy man and felt good about himself because he used music to replace his loss of vision. Another interesting story was “Cupids Disease” where the patient, Natasha K., came to the clinic at the age of 90. Since the age of 88 she said she went through some kind of change where she became more energetic, alive, interested in younger men and frisky. At first she thought it as some kind of sudden euphoria in the latter part of her life but her friends thought differently. She thought about it and then realized she had Cupid’s disease, syphilis. She had acquired the disease over 70 years before but now it had come back. Dr. Sacks looked into it and found out that she had neurosyphilis. She asked that it not be controlled but not gotten rid of because she liked the way that the disease made her act and feel. It’s strange that in this case the neurological disease present ended up making the person feel better about herself and her life. Since it was the end of her life the treatment