“You are a wonderful musician, and music is your life.” The excerpt from Oliver Sacks’ “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” covers the author’s experience as a neurologist and a patient named Dr. P. Although Dr. P. had a strong musical background and appeared normal, he had trouble identifying and visualizing faces. Sacks’ patient, Dr. P. was a well-known music teacher and musician. He also painted and sang. He was known as a very intelligent man but had a problem recognizing faces. He would not recognize his students until they spoke and saw faces on water hydrants. This strange behavior was laughed off as a joke until Dr. P. was diagnosed with diabetes. With the knowledge of diabetes potentially adversely affecting the eyes, he visited an ophthalmologist. The ophthalmologist did not find anything wrong with his eyes; however, he found problems with the visual part of Dr. P’s brain and referred him to a neurologist. …show more content…
Sacks. Dr. Sacks performed various tests on Dr. P. During his initial examination, Dr. Sacks found that Dr. P. could not differentiate between his shoe and his foot. Dr. Sacks had tried tests involving abstract shapes and playing cards and Dr. P. had passed both of these tests. Tests involving faces of actors, friends, and family showed no results; however, he did recognize some pictures due to seeing specific characteristics that people had such as Albert Einstein’s hair and mustache. At the end of the examination and tests, Dr. P. had asked if there was anything wrong with him. Dr. Sacks, unable to give him a proper answer, prescribed Dr. P. a “life that consists entirely of