The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

This is one of those books that I'll keep mentioning and telling people to read. I already know how annoying i am going to be talking about this book forever. There are so many things I loved about the book. First of all, it is scientific, with all the terms mentioned and the biology explained, you actually know that you're learning something, not just amassing a collection of cool stories to tell. Secondly, all the cases are told with so much humanity, and respect to the patient. It is their story, more than it is the doctor's (Oliver Sacks), which is obvious, but very much lacking in the medical world especially now. Along the way, we're trying to understand what the patients are feeling, and what their needs are, and how they're going to live with their condition, while learning about what caused that condition, and the history and the different theories about it. It is never a boring read, but actually quite emotional.

The human brain is so fascinating, and so complex, but also so fragile. However, with all the possible ways the nerves could start malfunctioning, there's always a way for them to reroute or compensate. Here's the sad part of the book, where even though it shows that every human will find their way to express themselves, or find the universe that will bring them peace, society is rarely patient enough with them to help. Or even when they do find it, it is disregarded, because it doesn't allow them to be a part of this society, because who cares about inner peace, when we need people in this society to do unwanted menial jobs. The case of the Twins (chap.23) actually made me cry. The fact that we just want people with mental illnesses to just be functional enough to be productive, however destructive that is to their personality. I know that's the case of everyone in this system, but there's a certain kind of cruelty to take the only thing that made a person, stuck in his own head, happy, so he'd be “productive” [I'm still angry about chapter 23].

The thing about this book is, that I can talk for hours about each of the 24 chapters, and there will always be more to talk about. So just read the book everyone, it is really important.

PS. Also something that I very much appreciated, is that Oliver Sacks in no way makes you feel that neurology is only a field for doctors. It shows that he wants you to know what's happening in your body, because we all have one. He wants us to understand our inner world. He wants us to know how we all function and how we can disfunction. He just explains all the jargon. I could write forever, but I will stop for now. Will definitely read his other books.