The man who mistook his wife for a hat

[FORUM9351]

anyone read this book? It's great.

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[El Chupacabra]

yes, agreed.

 

[ChildNeuro]

I would also recommend "An Anthropologist on Mards" it has alot of interesting neurology case vignettes.

 

[OB/Gyn Kenobi]

Also recommend the works of AR Luria. Sacks rules.

 

[Palaver87]

I think it was a good book in descriptively telling about the cases, but it kind of left me hanging on each case by not explaining why patients were showing these fascinating symptoms... "Phantoms in the Brain" by Ramachandran is another popular neurology book, but this one tries to explain the anomalies through his own research, so I recommend that as well.

 

[llogg]

Anyone read The Man Who Tasted Shapes by Richard Cytowic? Was it any good?

 

[carn311]

I liked the beginning of "the man who mistook his wife for a hat" very much but I found Sacks a bit too "psychiatric" towards the middle to end of the book.

Can anyone recommend a popular science author that is a little less psychoanalytical and introduces more neuroscience concepts?

 

[f_w]

Sacks got me interested in medicine as a field.

Without 'awakenings' (the book, not the movie), the thought to go to medschool would have never crossed my mind.

(awakenings btw. has an appendix that goes through the science on influenza, encephalitis and the postencephalitic syndrome. 'The man who.... is indeed rather descriptive, but if I remember correctly that is exactly what he wanted to do.)

 

[Nerdoscience]

"psychiatric"? Maybe you me "psychological" or perhaps "philosophical"

I didn't find him to be psychotic or have a mood disorder that was perhaps treated with medications and electroconvulsive therapy, as would be suggested by that comment.

 

[carn311]

"psychiatric"? Maybe you me "psychological" or perhaps "philosophical"

I didn't find him to be psychotic or have a mood disorder that was perhaps treated with medications and electroconvulsive therapy, as would be suggested by that comment.

I meant psychiatric in the sense that every case in the latter half of his book was primarily focused on behavior and not the organic origins of the patient's disease. This fits with Sacks' style; he is a very behavior oriented physician and writer (Sacks has been openly seeing a therapist for analysis for years).

Because of this I think the book can certainly be described as having a psychiatric tilt.

Lesson learned...

Don't ever question Oliver Sacks on the neuro forum.

 

[Rogue Synapse]

Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat... both great books. Haven't read An Anthropologist on Mars yet. How is it different from The Man...?

 

[ChildNeuro]

Anthropologist on Mars has cases of people with autism. There is also the "Island of the ColorBlind" by Sacks which is a good read too.

 

[mendel121]

Anyone read The Man Who Tasted Shapes by Richard Cytowic? Was it any good?

i read it, it's very good, the only drawback that I noticed was that Cytowic really thinks pretty highly of himself - but it's ok, i guess, probably well deserved.

The book is a nice mix of neuro theories that he has and stories about getting the research done. i'd recommend it to any neuro fan.

 

[StringerBell]

anyone read this book? It's great.

The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat is among my favorites. I wouldn't say that it inspired me to go to med school, but I will say that it definitely was synergistic with my developing love for neurology at the time that I read it.

I will admit that I have seen, but not read, Awakenings. I'm going to put it on my Amazon wish list right now.

 

[Bill59]

Harold Klawans is also good. He was a neuorlogist at Rush. "Toscanini's Fumble" was my favorite; he also has a couple of books on evolutionary neurology. The only one I didn't like so much was one dealing with neurology in sports, "Why Michael can't hit" or something similar.

 

[ttac]

nice article on Oliver Sacks...

http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2007/10/the_listener.php

 

[buckley]

I love Harold Klawans!!! I didn't know he was from Rush! Is he still there? I am soo excited! I read his "Defending the Cavewoman and other tales of evolutionary neurology!" Uber-wonderful! Foreword is by Oliver Sacks

 

[buckley]

Oops! The Oliver Sacks forword was in Phantoms in the Brain by Ramachandran---sorry! but it's a good book tooo....Im reading it right now.

 

[Jonath00]

nice article on Oliver Sacks...

http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2007/10/the_listener.php

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