The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat Essay, Research Paper

Men ought to know that from nothing else but the

brain come joys, delights, laughter and sports,

and sorrows, griefs despondency, and lamentations.

And by this, in an especial manner, we acquire

wisdom and knowledge, and see and hear and know

what are foul and what are fair, what are bad and

what are good, what are sweet and what are

unsavory……And by the same organ we become mad

and delirious, and fears and terrors assail us…

All these things we endure from the brain when it

is not healthy… In these ways I am of the

opinion that the brain exercises the greatest

power in the man.

–Hippocrates, ?On the Sacred Disease?

(4th century B.C)

?It is human nature to be curious about how we see and

hear; why some things feel good and others hurt; how we

move; how we reason, learn, remember, and forget; the nature

of anger and madness?(Bear, Connors, Paradiso 3). This

quote, found in my neuroscience textbook, basically sums up

why we study and write about the brain. The brain has been

a curiosity to man since the beginning of science. The

actual term ?neuroscience? is as recent as the 1970s, but

the study of the brain is as old as science itself.

Evolving over time, the discipline of neuroscience has

undergone significant changes to become what it is today.

New findings, new discoveries are always changing what we

know, or think we know, about the brain. It is with this in

mind, that I attempt to discuss Oliver Sacks collection of

narratives.

Referring to himself as a physician, Oliver Sacks has

dedicated his entire life to studying the person behind

neurological deficits. His interest lies not in the disease

itself, but also in the person-?the suffering, afflicted,

fighting, human subject-? and he presents these people in

short narratives collected in The Man who Mistook His Wife

for a Hat. Oliver writes these stories to teach the reader

about the identity of people who fall victim to neurological

diseases. He describes the experience of the victim as

he/she struggles to survive his/her disease. It is this

struggle, this description of persona that leads to the

notion of ?neurology of identity?(viii), which arouses the

historic concept of the mind and the brain.

In neuroscience?s earliest years, a neurologist by the

name of Descart spoke of the notion that there was a

governing body that existed outside of the physical brain.

This governor, the mind, was thought to be some sort of

spiritual phenomena that worked with the physical brain to

control actions, ?interactional dualism?. This concept of

the mind led to numerous studies regarding its actual

existence.

Reading Oliver Sacks narratives forces me to believe

that there just might be an outside force working together

in some sort interactional dualism. The existence of a mind

would support Sacks idea of identity; that is, that a

personal identity is formulated through perceptions, our own

perceptions. Oliver presents numerous stories where

neurological disorders have completely impaired a person?s

physical ability; the ability to remember, the ability to

comprehend, the ability to speak, hear. These patients,

however, never lose their spiritual ability. Their ability

to rejoice, to appear spiritually fulfilled, is never lost,

it is only hidden. An example of this spiritual phenomena

is the case of Jimmie, who had suffered from amnesia, and

could not remember anything for more than two minutes,

except that which was thirty years old. Jimmie had no

continuity, no reality. He lived in the eighties, but his

mind was in the thirties. Jimmie would erupt into panic

attacks of confusion and disbelief, only to forget them a

few minutes later. After frequent visits with Dr. Sacks,

however, Jimmie began to fine some continuity, some reality,

in what Sacks refers to as ?the absoluteness of spiritual

attention and act?(38). Jimmies spirit, regardless of the

brain deficit, was never completely lost. His spirit, which

may very well exist in his mind, or outside of the physical

brain, allowed him to have temporary realities.

Sacks writes about neurological deficits and how people

cope with these diseases to allow us, the reader, to

adventure into an unknown world. We, as normal people with

no neurological disease, really have no concept of how

devastating these circumstances can be to our life. Sacks,

however, provides us with stories that make us appreciate

our working brains. Thus it is extremely important to

continue writing about the brain and its mysteries to inform

the everyday person of the disasters that at some point may

occur.