Ceci Est Ma Femme

I finished the book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks!

Yes, its one of those books that I've been reading on and off for a while. It's a highly interesting book, especially if you are interested in psychology!

Split into four parts, it looks at 'losses', 'excesses', 'transports', and 'the world of the simple'.

For 'losses' the books focuses on right-hemisphere lesions/syndromes, which generally have effects which are difficult for the so-called 'normal population' to relate to. Left brain lesions can readily be localised to specific regions in the brain, and result in effects that are easier to comprehend. For example damage to Broca's area can affect the ability to construct complex grammatical sentences. Also, patients are aware of the problem. But for right hemisphere damage, patients display remarkable anosagnosia, not realising that they have a problem at all. And it is even more difficult for us to understand what the world looks like from their point of view. For example, how is it that someone can genuinely see not see his wife's head, but see a hat instead? Lost in a world of abstractions, this man could not see a glove as a glove, he did not recognise it. Rather when examining that specimen, he described it as "a continuous surface infolded on itself with five outpouchings...a container of some sort", he couldn't even guess at what it might be a container for - he couldn't recognise the shape of the hand. And he really didn't know, didn't feel, that there was a problem!

Or how does it feel like to feel like your body does not belong to you, where if you do not look at your hand it will wander off on its own; where you can only control your movements if you look at your feet as you walk, look at your hands as you take something?

The topics on excesses and transports were equally interesting, but i think the most moving part was the last topic which looked at mentally retarded people. Often the 'normal population' sees them as being unintelligent, incapable, not being able to 'fit in'. But as the author has found, "while they may be 'mentally defective' in some ways, they may be mentally interesting, even mentally complete, in others", or even gifted in specific areas. But in the effort to make them behave in 'socially acceptable' ways, they are forced to do menial jobs, to conform to 'normal' behaviour. And in so doing, many lose their giftedness, and possibly their centre. An alternative to consider is to nurture the gifted abilities, along with an empathic relationship, to help the person develop to his/her full potential. Is it really a 'small price to pay' to sacrifice their giftedness in order to make them conform to society?