The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales is a 1985 book
by neurologist Oliver Sacks describing the case histories of some of his
patients. The title of the book comes from the case study of a man with visual
agnosia. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat became the basis of an opera
of the same name by Michael Nyman, which premiered in 1986.
The book comprises twenty-four essays split into four sections, each dealing
with a particular aspect of brain function such as deficits and excesses
in the first two sections while the third and fourth describe
phenomenological manifestations with reference to spontaneous reminiscences,
altered perceptions, and extraordinary qualities of mind found in mentally
handicapped people. Content
The individual essays in this book include:
"The Lost Mariner", about Jimmie G., who has lost the ability to form new
memories due to Korsakoff's syndrome. He can remember nothing of his life since
the end of World War II, including events that happened only a few minutes
ago. He believes it is still 1945, and seems to behave as a normal, intelligent
young man aside from his inability to remember most of his past and the events
of his day-to-day life. He struggles to find meaning, satisfaction, and
happiness in the midst of constantly forgetting what he is doing from one
moment to the next. "The President's Speech", about a ward
of aphasiacs and agnosiacs listening to a speech given by an unnamed
actor-president, "the old charmer," presumably Ronald Reagan. Many in the
first group were laughing at the speech, and Sacks claims their laughter to be at
the president's facial expressions and tone, which they find "not genuine." One
woman in the latter group criticizes the structure of the president's sentences,
stating that he "does not speak good prose."
"The Disembodied Lady", a unique case of a woman losing her entire sense of
proprioception. "On the Level," another case involving
damaged proprioception. Dr. Sacks interviews a patient who has trouble
walking upright and discovers that he has lost his innate sense of balance due
to Parkinson's-like symptoms that have damaged his inner ears; the patient,
comparing his sense of balance to a carpenter's spirit level, suggests the
construction of a similar level inside a pair of glasses, which enables him to
judge his balance by sight. "The Twins", about autistic savants. Dr.
Sacks meets twin brothers who can neither read nor perform multiplication,
yet are playing a "game" of finding very large prime numbers. While the twins
were able to spontaneously generate these numbers, from six to twenty
digits, Sacks had to resort to a book of prime numbers to join in with them. This
was used in the film House of Cards starring Tommy Lee Jones. The twins also
instantly count 111 dropped matches, simultaneously remarking that 111 is
three 37s. This story has been questioned by Makoto Yamaguchi, who
doubts that a book of large prime numbers could exist as described, and
points out that reliable scientific reports only support approximate
perception when rapidly counting large numbers of items. Autistic savant Daniel
Tammet points out that the twins provided the matchbox and may have
counted its contents beforehand, noting that he finds the value of 111 to be
"particularly beautiful and matchstick-like."
"The Dog Beneath the Skin", concerning a 22-year-old medical student, "Stephen
D.", who, after a night under the influence of amphetamines, cocaine, and
PCP, wakes to find he has a tremendously heightened sense of smell. Sacks would
reveal many years later that he, in fact, was Stephen D.
In popular culture Christopher Rawlence wrote the libretto
for a chamber opera—directed by Michael Morris with music by Michael Nyman—based
on the title story. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat was first produced by
the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1986. A television version of
the opera was subsequently broadcast in the UK.
Peter Brook adapted Sacks's book into an acclaimed theatrical production, L'Homme
Qui..., which premiered at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris, in 1993. An
Indian theatre company performed a play entitled The Blue Mug, based on the
book, starring Rajat Kapoor, Konkona Sen Sharma, Ranvir Shorey, and Vinay Pathak.
The subject of one chapter of this book is a man named Jimmie G. with
anterograde memory loss; this name is similar to that of John G, a character
in Memento, a movie in which the main protagonist has the same defect.
The Man Who, an album by the Scottish indie pop band Travis, is named after
this book. In the 2009 claymation film Mary and
Max, the title character Mary is studying neurological disorders while
attending college. She can be seen reading the book on a park bench during
a later scene in the movie. In his 2010 Tamil novel Dhegam, Charu
Nivedita characterized Neha, who in her flight of ideas comments about 'The Man
Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.' In the 2011 Stephen King novel 1163, it
is mentioned that Jake was not "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat", but
rather "The Man Who Thought He Was In 1958".
See also Proprioception
Blindsight References
= Notes= = Bibliography=
External links Sacks, Oliver, "The Man Who Mistook His
Wife for a Hat", Books . Sacks, Oliver, The Open Mind, Archive .