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Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks
22 reviews
beca_reads's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
1.0
This book was alright until he started talking about Tourette's. As someone with a tic disorder in the process of getting a diagnosis of Tourette's and an ex Psychology student I was let down massively down at the way he portrayed those who have tics. It started off bad during a chapter titled "Whitty, Ticcy, Ray" Sacks discussed mainly how he used a drug called Haldol (an antipsychotic which is commonly used for those with Tourette's) had completely got rid of rays tics, personally this is hard to believe as there is no current cure for Tourette's, and I felt that the way Sacks wrote about this gave false hope to those that have the condition. Medications are commonly used for Tourette's syndrome, but they are only able to control motor and vocal tics, I can't fully get rid of them. Sacks also spent time talking to Ray about curing his tics and life without tics, if the medication had not worked the way it did this would have given a sense of false hope which is damaging. Sacks does make some good points more at the beginning of the chapter- "was it possible that Tourette's was not a rarity, but rather common" This is completely true 1 in 100 school aged children have Tourette's. May Main issues with Sacks writing is the use of the word "possessed" in relation to those with Tourette's and titles his other chapter on Tourette's this. This frustrated me as this is a medical professional using such damaging language about a condition where people are very much not "possessed or need an exorcism" as some people like to think. By him using this language it perpetuates the idea that those with Tourette's are possessed. This book is one of the top books on Psychology students reading lists and these are students that are likely to work in the future with people who have Tourette's. Learning this language at an early stage in their career from some who is widely looked up to in the field is just dangerous. It is going to stop those with Tourette's accessing the help they need from medical professionals as they have a warped perception on the condition. After the second chapter on Tourette's I choose to DNF the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Mental illness, Medical content, Dementia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis