The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat Report

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.

Psychology is an unavoidable aspect of life; we can observe it every day - from mental illness to the acquisition of language - everything we do, think, and feel is determined by our minds. What particularly interests me is the biological explanations behind human behaviour, and why certain neurological factors, such as biochemical abnormalities, can influence how an individual behaves. Through unravelling the complexities behind human behaviour, emotions, and thought, psychology attempts to solve many current problems we face today, such as the projected increase in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, through conducting life changing research. The opportunity to be involved in a field that so positively impacts people’s

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 addition, another important quality that the doctors have is the ability to collaborate. Dr. House deduces that the excessive bravery, along with the recurrent hallucinations may be an indication of a problem in the amygdala. With the help of Dr. House, the diagnostician, Dr. Foreman, the neurosurgeon, and Dr. Wilson, the

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,

Oliver Sacks is a very famous doctor of neurology as well as a writer. He spent most of his adult life treating patients. Oliver Sacks mostly concentrated on disorders of the brain and nervous system. In a lot of the cases that Sacks dealt with, there was nothing he was able to do to heal the patients. His goal was to find a way to live with and accept their condition as well as possible. Sacks enjoyed dealing with cases mostly about experiences of real people struggling to live with unusual conditions. That’s where he wanted to find ways to help these patients to the best of his and medical ability out there. Throughout his cases he studied he came across patients who had different

Phantom Limb Pain (PLP) is a serious condition that occurs when a person who has lost a part of their body though amputation, trauma (brachial plexus), or loss of nervous connections in an appendage, perceives that the limb is still there and experiences sensations coming from this area. It was first described in 1866 by S. Weir Mitchell, an American neurologist, through a short story published in Atlantic Monthly. While Mitchell may then have wondered if this was specific to wounded Civil War soldiers, it has since been established as quite common (1). Over 70% of amputees report phantom limb pain for years after amputation (2). Several theories have been proposed regarding PLP, although there is still much to be

Since there is no visual feedback, initiating motor intention does not activate proprioreceptors (4). Over time, phantom limbs are deemed by the amputee to be overflexed, which causes a cramping pain. The question that arises is, if the inconsistency between the intention of the brain and the perception of the body's actions was to be resolved, could the phantom pain also be eliminated? Several theories have been developed over the years that have attempted to answer this question, most notably by Ronald Melzack and Vilayanur Ramachandran.

In the first chapter of the book we follow the perspective of a neurologist who is trying to make sense of Dr. P’s unique case of a left-hemisphere syndrome that causes him to mistake his wife for a hat. I really identified with the provider and his approach to the situation by using his problem solving therapeutic use of self. They initially meet for a routine neurological exam and although Dr. P seems very functional the doctor is perplexed when Dr. P mistakes his foot for his shoe and when he is unable to describe the magazine scene as a whole but instead as individual features. Determined to figure out what is going on he decides to visit Dr. P at his home in order to see his disability within a familiar habitat. From there the neurologist conducts a series of tests to see which region of the brain his deficit occurs in and then he narrows it down to explore the neurological impacts they have on his life. This methodical procedure that uses various test to rule out what’s incorrect and hone in on the specific problem area in order to make the best recommendations is the epitome of problem solving.

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

Chapter three, The Disembodied Lady, tells the story of a women named Christina who loses her entire sense of proprioception, otherwise known as “sixth sense”. At the age of twenty-seven, she was hospitalized to have her gallbladder removed. The day before her surgery, Christina had a nightmare that she could not stop her body from flailing about and hardly felt anything. Later the next day, all the symptoms came true from her dream. She said that she couldn’t feel her body and even feeling disembodied from it. Oliver Sacks examined Christina and found that she lost all proprioception and was diagnosed with polyneuritis. She had no sense of familiarity with her body, though could feel superficial sensations like wind on her body. To compensate, she’d used her senses to regain a sense of her body like using her vision to control how she moves and hearing to vocalize her tone and volume. She had to relearn basic behaviors, making her question her question her sense of connection to her own body. Even after years of working around proprioception, she still felt disembodied from her own body. In the Postscript, Sacks mentions other patient who lost their proprioception due to taking large amounts of vitamin B6.

Sacks discussed the ideas behind the phantom limb and how they affected many peoples live. The most interesting story was about a sailor that accidentally cut off his index finger. For forty years he thought he would poke himself in the eye whenever he moved his hand to his face. One day he lost the feeling in his entire hand including his phantom finger and his problem was cured (Sacks 66-67). Up to 70 percent of amputees confirmed that they still feel or still thought a missing limb was there. They often feel that they can reach out and grab something. Some won't sleep in a certain way because they feel the missing limb between them and the mattress. The sensations felt stem from the activity of the sensory axons

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.

Agnosia is defined as the inability to recognize objects through the processing of sensory information, which means there is no deficit in semantic memory or problems with naming objects. An individual suffering from agnosia still possesses all the relevant semantic information tied to a precept, but they cannot recognize the precept when it is presented to them and therefore trigger the recall of said information. There are many types of agnosia, but this essay will focus on visual object agnosia and prosopagnosia. The former is the inability to recognise objects: patients suffering from visual object agnosia do not have impaired vision, and in some cases can even copy the object they are seeing (patient H.J.A., Humphreys & Riddoch, 1987) or draw it from memory (patient D.F., Milner & Goodale, 1992), but are unable to recognize it when they see it. In the latter, prosopagnosia, patients cannot recognise faces of familiar individuals, and have to rely on other characteristics such as their voice or clothing to recognize them. Patients suffering from prosopagnosia can either acquire it through a lesion in relevant brain areas (acquired prosopagnosia) or for less understood reasons have it from birth, in which case it is termed developmental prosopagnosia. The study of patients with agnosia is integral to the field of visual recognition, as the specifics of their deficits can provide great insight into the ways our brain processes information; for example, the location of

Phantom limb pain is a painful sensation experienced in a body part which is no longer part of the body, often due to amputation.(3) Individuals also reported that tingling as well as various types of pain have occurred, and these sensations may eventually disappear or may persist as cramping, shooting, burning or crushing