Man who mistook his wife for a hat - Oliver Sacks - Review

It was an interesting title that made me pick the book, more in anticipation of a funny novel that’s bound to showcase comical interplay of events between a couple and their relatives. However, once I dipped into the first few pages, it dawned on me that Oliver Sacks was a neurologist and am about to read interesting titbits of true stories cherry picked from the long list of the author’s patients.

A curious case was brought in for Oliver’s diagnosis of the problem and identify a solution. The gentleman came in for a session with Oliver and exhibited remarkable expression of intelligence while having displayed noticeable competence towards his associated domain of work. Even after a long conversation no issues emerged to the surface until he was asked to recognize personalities. The gentleman was completely at sea and the idea of a face recognition seemed far fetched to him, a neurological condition named Prosopagnosia. As he turned to retreat back home after the session, he strangely couldn’t pull his hat up, apparently the man mistook his wife for a hat and Oliver simply used it for his title to evoke a curiosity amongst his patrons. 

(The image given above is a representational one and can never be a replica of how the Prosopagnosia patient visually interpreted faces)

Generally, neurological problems are common amongst injured war veterans who could have been amputated as a consequence of being in war field. There are many cases wherein the respective soldiers feel the existence of lost limbs or dramatically even experience pain on the non existent part of their body. It’s called phantom limbs and solace in such instances probably lies in understanding the neurological topography and how the parietal lobe senses different parts of the body. 

The opposite of phantom limbs is proprioception wherein the mind has simply lost sense of it’s limbs and functions as though they were non-existent. The motor functions of the limbs may still be in order but the mind has simply lost the route towards it’s access. So, the respective individual with proprioception will have to visually validate the presence of the limbs to enable the corresponding functions of the limb. For instance, lifting an arm will be a casual act for normal individuals while the same is bound to be a conscious effort for the one with the disorder. Well, one may have everything but when a lack of coordination takes center stage, the presence of an asset becomes immaterial. 

Memory is our coherence to life, when someone loses a part of it then the relevance to an individual's existence becomes questionable. Mr. G, an obvious pseudonym to safeguard his privacy, simply lost memory of the last two decades of his life and intriguingly isn’t even aware. Believing himself to be in his late twenties, he couldn’t explain why most of the hairs on his head were grey. It’s the case of retrograde amnesia and points to a damage or could be the consequence of removal of tumour in the temporal lobe. 

There are many more intriguing cases disclosed by Oliver Sacks and I will leave it to the readers to explore. Given the verbatim and intense content, I suspect it’s going to be a hard read for many.