A Review of the Book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks

Title: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

Author: Oliver Sacks

Publisher: Harper & Row Publishers Inc

Year: 1987

233 pages

From the Back: This is a collection of stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations: patients who have last their memory and with it the greater part of their past; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who short involuntary obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as mentally retarded yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents. If inconceivably strange, these brilliant tales remain deeply human. They are studies of life struggling against incredible adversity, and they enable us to enter the world of the neurologically impaired, to imagine with our hearts what it must be to live and feel as they do.

Personal Thoughts: A friend of mine found this book in a free library and, because of my work in pastoral care, thought it might be interesting to me. The title of the book helped a lot to grab our interest.

    This book was definitely written more for those who work in the neurological and psychological field. The language was quite scientific in places, going a little too deep into academia for me, simply because I am neither a neurologist or a psychologist. However the stories were quite well told and were, to say the least, intriguing. It certainly provided some insight to a variety of mental illnesses that exist in the world and a reminder that behind that illness is a human being simply trying to live their life.

    So while the information in this book was well beyond my professional need, it never hurts to be reminded of the humanity of each person that we may meet in our lives.