Intriguing title, isn't it?
The author of this book is Dr.Oliver Sacks, a famous British neurologist who is very popular around the world for his best-selling books. This book is about the case histories of some of his patients with variety of neurological disorders.There are 24 case histories in this book with interesting stories that make you feel that these patients are so near to your mind.
This book came out in 1985, around that time because of technological advancements the medical industry was more interested in studying 'diseases'. Dr.Oliver says, "They had to study patients, it is important to study the whole living reality of being a patient and they should read and write case histories in a narrative way"
Some of his famous characters that get 'lost' due to neurological disorders:
1. Dr P who cannot identify faces or for that matter any 'form' of objects.Once he thought of his wife as hat and tried to lift it off, thus giving Dr. Oliver the name for his book.
2. A disembodied lady who because of an effect of a steroid, drops everything she picks up.
3. A man who cannot recognize his own leg as part of his body and falls from his bed everynight trying to kick it out of his bed.
4. An 80 year old lady with neurosyphilis (or 'Cupid's disease' as she calls it!) enjoys her re-birth and rejuvenation feeling because of the disease's short-term effects on the spinal fluids and sudden excitement it creates on the cerebral cortex.
5. A murderer who cannot remember about his act of committing murder but his brain brings back the lost memory from an injury from a motorcycle accident.
6. A retarded girl who spends hours struggling to wear her gloves but becomes normal when she reads and recites poetry.
7. A twins who have a very gifted skill at numbers but don't know the basic calculation of numbers.
Dr.Oliver says, "Music, narration and drama have enormous power and influence on human brain". Our brain is a very unique component in our body, it has too many modules and connections to other components of the body, integrated and balanced in a very delicate way.
The final therapy there is "work and love", this is a famous saying by Sigmund Freud and these brilliant stories of Dr.Oliver illuminate what it means to be human.
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