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Man Who Mistook His Wife

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In his book, author Oliver Sacks tells the accounts of many of the stories he has encountered throughout his career as a neurologist. Each individual story ranging from a variety of different neurological disorders, displays a common theme which add to Sacks’ overall message conveyed. The themes that are conveyed by Sacks include losses, excesses, transports, and the world of the simple. Each theme consists of grouped stories that coincide with the overlying message. In the losses section, the nine chapters all deal with some sort of deficit inside of the brain. This section included the title of the book, “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat”. In this story, the underlying problem consisted of a man, Dr.P, who could piece together individual …show more content…

is unable to live his life after 1945 and still believes he is 19 years old, despite the fact he is much older. In the excesses section, all five chapters deal with a type of neurological disorder that causes a surplus of a type of behavior in the patients. This section includes the story called “Witty Ticcy Ray”. Ray is a patient that has Tourette 's Syndrome, but always had excess joy and happiness, until he was prescribed a drug by Sacks. This drug caused him to lose his personality and caused the cure to be worse than the disease itself. Also included, in this section is the story called “A Cupid’s Disease”. This story tells of a 90-year old woman who had syphilis but rather than choosing to get treated, she chose to stay energetic and live her life without having to take medication. In the transports section, all six chapters deal with patients who have vivid dreams, or unconscious experiences. In “Reminiscence”, Mrs. O’C dreamed of her days as a child in Ireland. This caused her to feel as if she was actually living her childhood over again. In another story, “Incontinent Nostalgia”, an older woman who had Parkinson 's was given a medicine to treat her shaking. This medication caused her to remember her earlier happy memories she formed before her

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