Product Description

‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is populated by a cast as strange as that of the most fantastic fiction. The subject of this strange and wonderful book is what happens when things go wrong with parts of the brain most of us don’t know exist . . . Dr Sacks shows the awesome powers of our mind and just how delicately balanced they have to be’ Sunday Times

‘Who is this book for? Who is it not for? It is for everybody who has felt from time to time that certain twinge of self-identity and sensed how easily, at any moment, one might lose it’ The Times

‘This is, in the best sense, a serious book. It is, indeed, a wonderful book, by which I mean not only that it is excellent (which it is) but also that it is full of wonder, wonders and wondering. He brings to these often unhappy people understanding, sympathy and respect. Sacks is always learning from his patients, marvelling at them, widening his own understanding and ours’ Punch

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1064 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author

Oliver Sacks was educated in London, Oxford, California and New York. He is a professor of clinical neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is the author of many books, including Musicophilia and Awakenings.

Customer Reviews

Well written, accessible and thought-provoking
This book is written in a beautifully accessible and entertaining style; it is also moving, funny and tragic in equal measures.

Consisting mainly of short stories relating patient 'oddities' that the author has treated in his long career as a neurologist it manages to come across as anything but a list of dry case histories. The inclusion of the emotions of the patient as they deal with their difficulties and the reactions of the author keep this book human rather than academic.

Although this is a recommended book for undergraduate students of various disciplines, it should not be discounted as a mere informative reader because of that. Anyone interested in stories of the human condition or those with a fascination/awe of the human brain will find this intriguing, engaging and interesting.

A classic with some reservations...
I can understand some of the critical reviews about this book but there is no doubt that it justifiably remains a classic and well worth reading - it was the first book of its kind and is for anyone interested in strange neurological case histories. Maybe the language is a bit dated but it was written a good few years ago. A more recent book that I've just read in a similar genre is 'Classic case studies in psychology' by Dr. Geoff Rolls - it contains different chapters on some of the best known cases in psychology (Genie, Phineas Gage, HM, David Reimer, and so on). It's a very easy and enjoyable read and most of the cases are perhaps better known than the ones in 'The Man who mistook his wife...' I notice that Amazon have paired it with Sach's book as a perfect partner so they must agree that the two are complementary. Both are well worth a read.

wonderful
This is a truly brilliant book, and one of the main inspirations which caused me to enter medicine in the first place. I agree with the Welsh reviewer that the amount of technical jargon in the book might frustrate a non-medic, but remember, these are genuine neurological patients being discussed in medical terms that would be of interest to both the specialist and general reader - the reason that the book is so universally readable is because of Sacks' wonderful empathy and determination (partly inherited from the great Russian neuroscientist Alexander Luria) that patients should be managed and documented as people first and cases second - a view which is sadly far from universal among neurologists. For those interested by this book, the work of V.S. Ramachandran addresses many similar issues (including bizarre stories to tell your mates in the pub!)