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

informative reflective medium-paced

2.75

 I have mixed feelings about this book. The author admits in the new preface that many terms used are no longer generally accepted and many patient descriptors are far from nuanced. While his attempts to humanize individuals who society and medicine tend to disregard are admirable, most profiles are simply a collection of observations and anecdotes, rarely providing any professional or psychological analysis or interpretation. Maybe that is due to the lack of terms and diagnoses of the time, but, while I'm sure the intent was to show that individuals with mental differences are no less human than the general population, and he often succeeds in this portrayal, it also sometimes leads to a feeling of exploitation, IMO. He also makes constant references to other texts, both of others and his own, with little explanation, as though he just assumes everyone reading his book is a scholar of the topic. Interesting and historically significant writing, but I'm sure there are more modern and less problematic books out there .