preview

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

Good Essays
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…show more content…
In fact, what these two are experiencing is the “excited stage of neurosyphilis” (Sacks, 1998. p.104).
Neurosyphilis is the last stage of syphilis. Syphilis is an infectious disease that is contacted through sexual intercourse, therefore neurosyphilis in the infection in the brain and spinal cord that stems from severe, untreated syphilis. This disease is progressive meaning that it gets worse over time. It comes from a bacteria called Treponema Pallidum which invades the central nervous system and affects many organs and systems in the body when contracted (Barbosa et al., 2012).
Many people who contract syphilis are subject to reaching the stage of neurosyphilis if the original syphilis is left untreated. According to Mehrabian, Raycheva, Petrova, Tsankov, and Traykov (2009) 25-40% of people who are not treated for syphilis contract neurosyphilis.
Once diagnosed with this disease, there are 5 different forms that it may emerge. The earliest two stages are that of asymptomatic meningitis, which means that the patient shows no symptoms of the disease, and syphilic meningitis. The last 3 and most severe forms of neurosyphilis is general paresis (GPI), meniningovascular syphilis, and tabes dorsalis. It is estimated that 20-30% of people who contracted neurosyphilis have the asymptomatic type (Barbosa et al., 2012).
There are a variety of symptoms that neurosyphilis present
Get Access