Detailed Report: Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat - Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Oliver Sacks' book, "Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales." It delves into the book's contents, examining the social, political, and cultural contexts relevant to the case studies presented. The report explores the author's background, evaluating the perspectives and purpose behind the book's publication. It identifies and examines the methodologies employed by Sacks, analyzing the book's structure and the legacy it has left in the field of neurology. The analysis includes detailed overviews of several case studies, such as Dr. P's visual agnosia, Jimmie G.'s amnesia, and the stories of individuals with various neurological conditions. The report emphasizes the book's non-fictional nature and its impact on understanding the complexities of the human brain and its disorders, highlighting the book's contribution to the field and its lasting influence. The report also discusses the significance of the book's mixed approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative data to provide a detailed exploration of the human nervous system and its impact on individual behavior. The book is divided into four parts: Losses, Excesses, Transports, and The World of the Simple, each containing several sub-sections with unique cases. The report offers a detailed understanding of the book's structure, contents, and impact.

Project

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
1. Detailed examination of the contents of the book including social, political, and cultural
factors that possess a lot of importance in the current as well as past scenario...........................1
2. Analysis of the background of the author in both personal and professional terms in an
appropriate manner......................................................................................................................2
3. Evaluating the different perspective and background of the book and the purpose behind the
publishing of the book.................................................................................................................2
4. Detailed identification and examination of the different methodology and methods that are
used by the author so as to produce the book appropriately........................................................3
5. Analysis and evaluation of the book and its overview............................................................4
6. Discussing the legacy that the book has left behind itself in the industry...............................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
This report is a brief document of a book named “Man who mistook his wife for a hat and
other clinical tales” which was written by one of the finest writers of the world that is Oliver
Sack and the story of the book revolves around various aspects that a person faces (Asmolov and
Falikman, 2018). The story is related with an individual’s story which is Dr. P which has
developed a disease known as visual agnosia and before that disease can be diagnosed the person
mentioned above reached an ophthalmologist after developing diabetes thinking that it could
possibly affect the vision in an adverse manner. The story keeps on revolving around different
personnel’s that are affected by different diseases as the book is majorly divided into four parts
namely starting from the first “Losses”, “Excesses”, “Transports”, “The World of the Simple”
and each one of them offers a deep insight of loss, heartache, hope, and perseverance of various
individuals that are presented in the book in a sequential and systematic way. Apart from this the
book also makes its reader appreciate and analyse the mysteries of the brain as well as the hidden
powers that it possess in the long run. The book is however a non-fiction one which was
published by Oliver Sacks in the year 1995 as it is considered and regarded as case histories of
some of the patients that were treated during that period.
MAIN BODY
1. Detailed examination of the contents of the book including social, political, and cultural
factors that possess a lot of importance in the current as well as past scenario
The book that is “Man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales” includes
many events that carriers a lot of importance in the current scenario as it alludes many important
events such as the epidemic of sleepy sickness in the United States of America in the year 1920,
the end of the World War II in 1945, and the election of Ronald Reagan as the president in the
late 1980s. Since mostly all the countries are heading towards development stage all the
activities in either it is social, political, or even cultural all are directed towards the attainment
and accomplishment of a similar objective that is the achievement of growth and prosperity in
the long run which can further result in achieving the tag of develop nation which is an important
thing in itself. Since the book is related with the study of the nervous system of the human being
and thus there are nothing similar written which can act as one of its substitute in the industry
and it was the only book of this genre. As all the countries are heading towards industrialisation

and the development as a whole was the main focus of the higher authorities in all the three
aspects that are discussed above in detail (Chernow, 2018).
2. Analysis of the background of the author in both personal and professional terms in an
appropriate manner
The author of the book “Man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales” was
Oliver Wolf Sacks and was a neurologist, science historian, author, and a naturalist by profession
and was born on 9th July 1933 in the city of Cricklewood, London, UK and died on 30th August
2015 at the age of 82 in Manhattan, New York City, United States of America. He was a British
national and completed almost all of the education there only and believed that the brain is the
most powerful and the incredible thing in the universe and thus is widely known for a series of
books that was published which are non-fictional in nature which are based on the neurological
and psychiatric patients that was treated by him in his lifetime. The universities in which Oliver
Sacks studied were New York University, Columbia University, Albert Einstein College of
Medicine, University of Warwick, and Little Sisters of the Poor. There was not much know
about the personal life of Mr. Sack but he never married and lived most of the life alone while he
only addressed his homosexuality in 2015 for the first time in the autobiography that was On the
Move: A Life (Doesn’t Ground Freedom, 2020).
3. Evaluating the different perspective and background of the book and the purpose behind the
publishing of the book
The book that is “Man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales” was
commissioned and the royalty of the book that was received after each copy was sold to the
customer receive directly to the author of the book that was Oliver Sacks and this is one of the
reason that the writer analysed that the response of the viewers is good enough as the profits that
was generated by selling the book was huge. The author of the book came with a viewpoint that
the mind is one of the biggest tool and asset of an individual and it can help in many ways while
at the same time it can create a lot of hurdles too if it is not controlled by a person so it is very
necessary to befriend the mind in order to achieve growth and prosperity in life. The purpose of
publishing this book is entirely based on giving its readers a viewpoint that if a person is able to
control its mind rather than being controlled by the mind it can make huge difference as it can
help an individual to become more calm, composed, and concentrated towards the goals and
objectives of the life which is the real motive of living according to the author. The above affects

the reliability of the book as it is a non-fictional one and all the character that are presented in it
are the real one that the author himself meet while treating them at various places for different
diseases. The author does not specifically aim or point out sat someone in particular but the
storyline of the boom is in general so that each and every person can closely relate with it in an
accurate and precise manner (Fay and Haydon, 2017).
4. Detailed identification and examination of the different methodology and methods that are
used by the author so as to produce the book appropriately
Since the book that is “Man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales” was a
non-fictional in nature and as there are a number of approaches of social research prevailing in
the current scenario namely quantitative, qualitative, and mixed. In quantitative numerical study
of all the aspects are done in order to come to a conclusion about something while in qualitative
all the rest of the factors are studied so that all the things can be analysed and evaluated in detail
which posses a lot of importance in the current market scenario. Whereas a mixed approach is a
one which uses both quantitative and qualitative so as to come to a defined conclusion that can
be concrete enough so that it can add value in the long term concept (Gáliková, 2018). The data
that is produced by the author for the above mentioned book is a mixed one since it is related
with studying the nervous system of the human beings which is highly complicated in nature and
thus it becomes very much important to examine everything in detail and thus a mixture of
numeric terms and other aspects are combined together to come to a conclusion so as to
formulate the book in an appropriate and precise manner which can carter the needs,
requirements, and demands of the viewers and readers of the author’s book. While there are a
number of benefits that this type of research and data carriers but the most important one is that it
helps in understanding and evaluating different concepts of individual behaviour and other
aspects that are very critical in the current scenario as it can prove beneficial for effective and
efficient management of all the ethical issues that are prevailing in the present time and that too
in an appropriate manner which can add value to the society in the long run (I’VE TOLD, 2018).
Whereas the limitations of this kind of study is that it takes all the individuals as in general which
is not at all feasible in market as each person have different set of skills and thinking ability
which is completely different from the other person and hence it is wrong to analyse and evaluate
all on the same scale. Since the book is written in an exceptional way it can be said that all the
approaches that are used so as to formulate the book has been used in an accurate and precise

manner thus adding more value to the book since the content is of very fine quality which makes
its advantages much more than its limitations.
5. Analysis and evaluation of the book and its overview
The books that have been discussed above which is “Man who mistook his wife for a hat and
other clinical tales” is mainly divided into four parts namely losses which has nine sub parts in it,
excesses that has five sub parts in it, transports which has six sub parts, and last one is the world
of the simple that has four sub parts in it and all of them are related with some of the patients that
the author of the book Oliver Sacks treated which is closely related with the study of nervous
system that is neurology in general. The book is further sub divided into many parts as each one
of them tells a different story of the patients that was treated by the author and its overview is
discussed below in an appropriate manner (Mishra and Pathak, 2018).
 One of the parts of the story which is "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" is
about a person Dr. P which has a disease of visual agnosia and consults an
ophthalmologist before going to Oliver Sacks which is the author of the book.
 In "The Lost Mariner" the story is related with a person Jimmie G. which has a problem
of anterograde amnesia and feels that he is still in 1945 which was the period of World
War II, though he seems to be normal but faces many challenges in doing day to day
activities.
 The story of "The President's Speech" is related with the speech that The President is
giving and a woman thinks that he does not speck good prose as many laughed on it at
the speech (Ribeiro and Lima, 2016).
 "The Disembodied Lady" is a story of a woman that has lost the entire sense of her due to
proprioception due to the toxitivity of vitamin B6 in her body.
 "The Man Who Fell out of Bed" is a rare case study of a disease that a young man was
found infected with which was somatoparaphrenia.
 "On the Level" is a case study of a patient that is also related with the above mentioned
disease proprioception and the author suggested a new pair of glasses so that vision of the
women can be treated in an impactful manner so that her eyes can become less tiring.
 "The Twins" is a story based on two twin brothers that are not even able to read and write
or perform any sort of calculations but are playing game of finding the largest prime

number and were also good at it and using various techniques that are used in two movies
namely House of Cards and Rain Man in 1993 and 1988 respectively.
 "Eyes Right" is a case study of one of the patients of Oliver Sacks that has a problem of
hemispatial neglect and in it the women which was in her sixties does not recognise
anything that is put on her left side and considers only the right side aspect.
 "The Dog Beneath the Skin" is a story of a person named Stephen D wake up in the
morning and finds that he has heightened sense of smell that was tremendous and later
revels that Stephen D was no one else but Oliver Sacks himself (Segrist and Meinz,
2018).
 "The Autist Artist" is a story of a 21 year old boy Jose that has been hopelessly retarded
and was having seizures but when Oliver Sacks gave him a pocket watch and asked to
draw it, he was surprised to see how effective and efficiently the boy had drawn the
watch.
6. Discussing the legacy that the book has left behind itself in the industry
The book “Man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales” has left a long
legacy behind it as it is a non fictional book and thus it had expanded scope for many other
writers in that field so that newer version of stories can be prepared so as to carter the needs and
requirements of the prospective readers. It is highly significant too as it gives others hope and
inspiration that this type of context can also fetch good market and appreciations of others and
thus encouraging many other doctors that are professional authors too so that case studies of
patients can be told as stories to inspire and aspire others which can prove very beneficial in the
long run (Sugden and Marquis, 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above it can be concluded that the book “Man who mistook his wife for a hat and
other clinical tales” is one of the masterpiece that the author Oliver Wolf Sacks has written as it
is a non fictional one and is basically based on the case study of the patients that the author has
treated in his personal life. Apart from that it can be concluded that the book is one of its kind as
it is explained and elaborated in such a manner so as to create awareness as well as fulfil the
expectations of the reader from the book in an effective, efficient, and impactful manner. Further
it can be concluded that though the story is mainly divided into four parts that is losses, excesses,

transports, and the world of the simple all of them are further sub divided into parts in which
each and every story is described in an impeccable way so as to create a sense of curiosity and
self awareness about different aspects that are very critical as well as crucial in the current
scenario.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Asmolov, A. and Falikman, M., 2018. Existential Neuropsychology: A Science of Making
Values. KnE Life Sciences, pp.90-97.
Chernow, R., 2018. The Warburgs. Head of Zeus Ltd.
Doesn’t Ground Freedom, W.N., 2020. Science, Ethics, and Free Will. What's with Free Will?:
Ethics and Religion after Neuroscience, p.166.
Fay, S. and Haydon, L., 2017. An Analysis of Homi K. Bhabha's The Location of Culture. CRC
Press.
Gáliková, S., 2018, May. Life and Death of Conscious Experience. In Proceedings of the XXIII
World Congress of Philosophy (Vol. 57, pp. 41-45).
I’VE TOLD, A.P.R.E.T.T.Y., 2018. Epilogue: Reading Organisms in the Age of Neuroscience.
The Elusive Brain: Literary Experiments in the Age of Neuroscience, p.228.
Mishra, S. and Pathak, V., 2018. Understanding youth in the Indian context. Indian Journal of
Health & Wellbeing, 9(2).
Ribeiro, R. and Lima, F.P., 2016. The value of practice: A critique of interactional expertise.
Social Studies of Science, 46(2), pp.282-311.
Segrist, D.J. and Meinz, E.J., 2018. Looking for a good read? running a psychology book club.
Psychology Learning & Teaching, 17(2), pp.219-228.
Sugden, N.A. and Marquis, A.R., 2017. Meta-analytic review of the development of face
discrimination in infancy: Face race, face gender, infant age, and methodology moderate
face discrimination. Psychological Bulletin, 143(11), p.1201.