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A review by pineconek
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
One of my neuroscience professors said something to the effect of "whenever we know what a brain region does, it's because we've seen what happens when it's damaged".
These are the case studies detailing these damages. They're baffling and illuminate how compartmentalized certain neural functions are. There's parts of our brain that specifically recognize faces, others that keep track of where our limbs are in space (even if we're not looking at them), and others still that help us know where our body ends and the not-me begins. These dysfunctions range from slightly comical to downright horrifying.
The text includes some language and perspectives that are, to put it politely, outdated. The author nevertheless extends (or, at least, attempts to extend) compassion to the patients in his care.
All that said, my enjoyment of the book steadily decreased as I went through it. I think that's both due to the fact that the cases I found to be more interesting were mostly in the first section, and that the cases started to get repetitive and reference one another as the book progressed.
Recommended if you're interested in how a few neuronal cells can misfire in baffling ways and are down to read two dozen case studies. 3.25 stars rounded down.
These are the case studies detailing these damages. They're baffling and illuminate how compartmentalized certain neural functions are. There's parts of our brain that specifically recognize faces, others that keep track of where our limbs are in space (even if we're not looking at them), and others still that help us know where our body ends and the not-me begins. These dysfunctions range from slightly comical to downright horrifying.
The text includes some language and perspectives that are, to put it politely, outdated. The author nevertheless extends (or, at least, attempts to extend) compassion to the patients in his care.
All that said, my enjoyment of the book steadily decreased as I went through it. I think that's both due to the fact that the cases I found to be more interesting were mostly in the first section, and that the cases started to get repetitive and reference one another as the book progressed.
Recommended if you're interested in how a few neuronal cells can misfire in baffling ways and are down to read two dozen case studies. 3.25 stars rounded down.