Oliver Sacks's The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat

Although the title suggests a comical book, Oliver Sacks presents an entirely different look on the mentally challenged/disturbed. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is a book that explains why a patient shows signs of losses, excesses, transports, and simplicity. Coincidentally, the book opens with its titling story, letting the reader explore the mind of an accomplish doctor who seems to have lost his true sight on life. In the following context, the seriousness of the stories and their interpretative breakdowns should only cause a better understanding of how the ever-so-questionable human mind truly works from a professional perspective put into simple words.

All behavior and bodily functions are processed though interactions with the brain. In his book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, Oliver Sacks discusses some of the ways that behavior is influenced for biological processes. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a chapter of this book entitled Cupid’s Disease and explain the underlying biological and psychological processes experienced by Sacks patients. In the case of Cupid’s Disease, the behavior being discussed is affected by a bacterial disease called neurosyphilis. This current paper will discuss the case in the book, the basics of neurosyphilis, its affected anatomical structures, diagnosis, and how it can be effectively treated. Through this

Cerebral palsy refers to a group of chronic disorders that involve degrees of brain damage that affect body control and movement. The term cerebral refers to the brain, while palsy describes a disorder that impairs the control of body movement. These disorders are not the result of muscles or nerves problems. Instead, they are due to impaired motor areas in the brain that disrupt its ability to control movement and posture. The condition typically appears within the first few years of life and it is not marked by regression. (Mecham, 1986)

Over the years scientists have noted many complaints of a strange form of pain called phantom limb pain. This pain is strange because it is located in an appendage that no longer exists. By many of the amputees the pain is described as totally unbearable. Phantom limb pain has even driven some victims crazy. For the amputee population this is a very real problem that definitely needs to be solved.

In Chapter 12 of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Mr. William Thompson suffered from an extreme case of Korsakov’s, also known as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (Sacks, 1985, p. 109). According to Anderson (2010), Korsakoff syndrome can cause serious damage to one’s hippocampus and temporal lobe due to habitual alcoholism, resulting in amnesia (p. 201). Similar to HM (Anderson, 2010, p. 200), Mr. Thompson suffered from anterograde amnesia and could remember nothing for more than a few brief moments (Sacks, p. 109). Anderson (2010) states that anterograde amnesia results in the incapability of creating new memories, leading to fractional or absolute inability to remember something that just happened (p. 201). Yet, one’s long-term memories before the incident remain intact; such as when Mr. Thompson recognized his younger brother, Bob, as he walked by the window (Sacks, 1985, p. 112-113). Mr. Thompson and HM both suffered from anterograde amnesia and could remember some long-term memories but not remember new ones, signifying that the neural makeup involved in making fresh memories are diverse from maintaining past memories (Anderson, 2010, p. 202).

The phantom limb pain the woman is experiencing is described as a painful condition of the amputated limb after the stump has completely healed. It is a chronic pain that occurs in more than 80% of amputees especially those who suffered pain in the limb before the amputation. Theories suggest that phantom limb pain results from redevelopment or hyperactivity of cut peripheral nerves, scar tissue or neuroma formation in the cut peripheral nerves, spinal cord deafferentation, and alterations in the thalamus and cortex. More so, the CNS integration, which involves reorganization and plastic modifications of the somatosensory cortex, effects the receptors in perceiving the pain of the amputated limb despite of the limb itself being absent. In addition,

Over time, doctors have seen countless patients that have complained of a strange form of pain sensation called phantom limb pain. The pain that patients are describing is occurring in appendages that are no longer part of their bodies. Many of these amputees have described this pain as utterly unbearable. For the amputee population, this is a very real problem that needs to be solved. Pain that is occurring in phantom limbs is very common in amputees. Mostly all amputees experience the sensation of phantom limb pain. Two-thirds of patients experience phantom limb pain, even 25 years after the loss of the limb. (Woodhouse) The vivid experience of a phantom limb often includes non-painful phantom sensations as which frequently reported in patients with phantom pain (Woodhouse).

With conflicting research and hardly valid data, to say that phantom limb syndrome is solely caused based on psychogenic mechanism of the patient is inaccurate. More recent research has strongly suggested peripheral mechanism to also be a factor in phantom limb syndrome. Once amputation of a limb or part of a limb is performed, a neuroma is created. Neuromas result from a trauma to the nerve and are typically formed on the site of an inquired sensory nerve, forming a knot in the area. The knot is mainly composed of axons that can no longer reconnect to the rest of the nerve cells due to amputation . These neuromas are the site where increased excitability due to an increased accumulation of molecules (recent research, scientist are not quite

While persuasive, the aforementioned experimental conclusions are well critiqued by Ronald Melzack who argues against looking to the somatosensory cortex or thalamus as the only cause of phantom pain in his April 1992 Scientific American article. He states: Such changes in the somatosensory thalamus or cortex could explain why certain feelings arise in limbs that no longer exist or can no longer

The earliest hypothesis regarding the cause of phantom limbs and pain was that of neuromas. These were thought to be nodules comprised of remaining nerves located at the end of the stump. These neuromas presumably continued to generate impulses that traveled up the spinal cord to portions of the thalamus and somatosensory domains of the cortex. As a result, treatment involved cutting the nerves just above the neuroma in an attempt to interrupt signaling at each somatosensory level (5). This and other related theories were deemed unsatisfactory because of the fact the phantom pain always returned, indicating that there was a more complex reason.

In this paper we will be discussing the neurological cases of phantom limbs derived from chapter 6, pages 36 through 39, of the book, The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. In this chapter, Mr.Sacks discusses the cases of phantom limbs as well as the phenomenon that occur with it. A phantom is a term that neurologist uses to describe an image or memory of a limb that is no longer present. The term Phantom was described in great detail by neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell in 1872 during and after the Civil War. Dr. Mitchell described different types of phantoms such as; ghost-like and surely, which he referred to as a sensory ghost, lifelike and real, extremely painful phantom limbs while others scarcely had any pain, extremely

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat was written by Oliver Sacks who is a professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University. Sacks writes about his studies of a man named Dr. P who has an unusual brain disorder. Sacks tries to figure out what is exactly wrong with Dr. P and prescribe him with something that can help him; but he can’t seem to figure out what will help Dr. P. His only solution is to prescribe him with “a life which consists entirely of music. Music has been the center; now make it the whole, of your life” (Sacks 688). Dr. P’s main problem is that he has lost judgment in his life which Sacks is scared

sensory input to the brain due to deafferentation or amputation, as well as a sensory

An extensive matrix of neurons in the brain gives us the sense of our own bodies and body parts. Pain results when this matrix produces an abnormal pattern of activity, as a result of memories, emotions, expectations or signals from various brain centres and not just from signals from peripheral nerves. Because of the lack of sensory stimulation or a person’s efforts to move a nonexistent limb, abnormal patterns may arise, resulting in phantom pain.

Amputation often causes patients to experience sensory illusions that the limb is still present. This is often called a phantom limb. This sense of having a phantom limb is a natural and frequent development during the recovery of an amputation. (1) (2) It is reported that at first, the phantom limb feels normal in size and shape, but in time this illusion of the size of the phantom limb usually becomes smaller.(1)