A review by navayiota
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.25

At the start of the book, I was 100% sure this would be a 5 star read. Even though the words used for the patients are now considered slurs, the doctor still handled them with care and compassion, and recognised the ableism that is often present in neurodivergent people's lives. That was surprising to me, since even nowadays I hear doctors completely invalidate me, others, our experiences and trauma. I was so prepared to love this book. And I still love the first 15 or so chapters, those will always be dear to me, but damn, it really went downhill in the last couple of chapters... It felt like they were written by a completely different person. So condescending and dismissive, and it was incredibly hard to get through. Little moments of compassion still came through, but it felt like searching in the trash for food that hasn't rotted. It was really disappointing and somewhat triggering to hear about people who weren't that different from me being called stupid and basically a waste of time and resources. I felt betrayed, since I had come to really like and trust the author. I'm not even sure how I feel about what the book ends on, I agree that society often decides an autistic person is useless and doesn't even give them the chance to show their skills and interests, to earn their place in society, but the way it was said felt so patronising. As if a disabled person is completely unable to do this by themselves, and need someone else to first give them permission. I understand that all this was written during a time where people were locked up simply for being different, so it definitely would have been a lot harder to do things by themselves back then.. but I feel like context could have been added. (the edition I listened to was released in 2019 and there were other edits in it, so I don't see why this couldn't have been one of them) I think this should be mandatory reading for people who want to learn about the struggles of neurodivergent people in the past, and recommended reading for people interested in psychology. The language used is pretty understandable but still scientific, and I can recall most of the disorders easily. This is well written, and I like it even though I'm disappointed with it.
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