The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat

In this post, I intend to write a bit about Oliver Sacks' marvelous book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat".
I want to summarise each chapter, not only for my own sake (to provide a sort of reference and reminder) but to also inform others and persuade them to read this book.

Part 1: Losses
1. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat - the case of Dr. P, a man who suffered visual agnosia, rendering him unable to recognise faces and other 'whole objects'.
2. The Lost Mariner - Jimmie G, sufferer of Korsakoff's Syndrome, making him unable to form new memories, meaning that he was 'stuck' in 1945 and believed things were still as they were then.
3. The Disembodied Lady - story of Christina, a woman who lost proprioception i.e. her sense of the positions, and ability to operate, her body parts. This left her almost paralysed, feeling as though she had no body, and she had to learn how to properly move her limbs again.
4. The Man who Fell out of Bed - the story of a man who woke to find what he assumed was a foreign leg in his bed, but, after throwing it out and falling with it, discovered it was his own! (although he was unable to recognize it as belonging to him) 
5. Hands - case of Madeleine J, a blind woman unable to use her hands, described them as 'lumps of dough' that did not feel a part of her. Her hands were not physically impaired but she could not use them to do anything or recognise anything with them. This was due to the fact she had never used her hands, so began to learn to use them at the age of 60.
6. Phantoms - a phantom, in these cases, is a persistent image/memory of a lost body part. 
7. On the Level - Mr MacGregor struggled with walking upright due to loss of his innate sense of balance, due to Parkinson's-like symptoms causing damage to his inner ears. He constructs a pair of glasses incorporating a spirit level to allow him to judge his own balance!
8. Eyes Right! - Mrs S, after suffering a stroke, had issues with her right cerebral hemisphere and had, as a result, lost the concept of 'left'. For example, she would not see food on the left side of her plate and would have to rotate in order to see it.
9. The President's Speech - about a ward of patients suffering aphasia (disturbance in the comprehension and formation of language) and/or agnosia (loss of ability to recognise certain things) watching the president's speech. Although unable to understand the speech, prosodic features were enough to cause the patients to laugh and enjoy it.
Part 2: Excesses
10. Witty Ticcy Ray - discussion of Tourette's syndrome, in particular in the case of a man called Ray who suffered multiple and explosive tics. He found, after taking a drug to relieve his symptoms, that he sometimes missed his tics, and that they were part of who he was. 
11. Cupid's Disease - 90 year old Natasha K, who suddenly became more energetic and 'frisky' in her old age, as a result of neurosyphilis (colloquially known as Cupid's Disease)
12. A Matter of Identity - the case of William Thompson, a sufferer of Korsakov's, who had issues with memory and trouble identifying people, and would identify people wrongly several times, each time he met them.
13. Yes, Father-Sister - Mrs. B, as a result of a cerebral tumour, had a change of personality, becoming 'indifferent' and always 'joking' e.g. calling the doctor 'father-sister' and not knowing left from right
14. The Possessed - a woman on the street, 'possessed' by 'tourettic impulses', causing her to frantically and uncontrollably imitate passers-by. An example of 'Street-neurology', a sad case in that she seemed to have completely lost her sense of 'self'
Part 3: Transports
15. Reminiscence - Mrs. O'C awoke from a strong reminiscent dream of her childhood in Ireland to find she could still hear, and was unable to stop, the music of her childhood inside her head. It was not a problem with her ears or insanity but due to temporal lobe seizures causing hallucinations. There was a similar case of Mrs. O'M and, while Mrs. O'C's music eventually faded, Mrs. O'M's got worse and was a cause of great annoyance. 
16. Incontinent Nostalgia - forced reminiscence, caused by L-Dopa, as displayed by a 63-year old woman, who, when released from Parkinsonism experienced psychomotor excitement and increased libido, as if she was young again.
17. A Passage to India - Bhagawhandi P, an Indian girl with a brain tumour causing seizures in which she would feel 'dreamy' and reminiscent and experienced visions of her home in India. The seizures took over, getting longer and more intense until she died. 
18. The Dog Beneath the Skin - the case of Steven D, who, after using many recreational drugs, awoke to find he had a heightened sense of smell.
19. Murder - Donald killed his girl and, due to amnesia, had no recolection of the murder. However, after sustaining a severe head injury, his consciousness grew clearer and his memory came back, meaning he was forced to a state of reminiscence of the murder. 
20. The Visions of Hildegard - Hildegard, a nun born 1098, experienced and recorded countless migrainous visions, interpretted as religious
Part 4: The World of the Simple
21. Rebecca - suffered cerebral and mental defects, making her clumsy, incapable of learning certain things but still able to form deep attachments and connect with the world in spite of her handicaps. She showed deep and meaningful appreciation for nature, deep grief when losing her grandmother and her movement problems did not affect her ability to dance. 
22. A Walking Grove - Martin A, a man with severe mental retardation but an incredible musical memory, and knew by heart, amongst other things, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
23. The Twins - autistic twin brothers, who are severely impaired in terms of reading and arithmetic but have an incredible ability to 'see' or 'perceive' numbers e.g. working like calendars, seeing how many matches fell out of a box, sharing 12 digit prime numbers. 
24. The Autistic Artist - the case of José, a young man with mental retardation, who suffered seizures. The found that drawing was his way of connecting with the world around him and to express himself.

This book was brilliant and I have written more about my views on it on my 'things I have watched/read' page.