Reviews

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

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frogwithafrog's review against another edition

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emotional informative slow-paced

emotional cause when I finally finished it I started crying

jenzhu's review

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1.0

Dr. Sacks came from a time in which it was the medical norm to refer to patients as morons and idiots. It was already antiquated in the 1980s, when we saw these terms in the vernacular of every day people to insult intelligence. Honestly, that’s not the problem I had with the last part of the book. It was his dismissal of his patents’ humanity. He regularly insults their looks and states how impossible it would be for them to appreciate any complexities in composition. He said it was a small price to pay to strip someone of their twin and numerical world so that they may lead menial lives. He makes fun of some for drawing nostrils on a fish… when fish actually do have nostrils. It took me more than a year to get through this last portion of the book because the way he speaks about these people, as if their only value stems from their ability to fit into a society of capitalistic return on investment. I figured I would finish it to give it a fair review, but I think I’m worse off for it.

Stick to the first stories about neurological disorders, these are quite interesting and Dr. Sacks isn’t cruel in these retellings. Skip the stories about his autistic patients if you don’t want to lose all your respect for him.

clatas's review

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slow-paced

4.0

mrshillier's review against another edition

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informative

3.0

gayos's review against another edition

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4.0

non me lo aspettavo ma mi è piaciuto molto! è una raccolta di casi clinici e questo non mi dava sicurezza ma invece si sono rivelati davvero interessanti e coinvolgenti.