A review by seven_of_nein
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
2.75
Some interesting case studies here but Sacks can't seem to help but pity and other his patients at almost every turn. He writes about them in dramatic prose, often as if they are afflicted by the most tragic states of being imaginable—usually with the assumption that "fixing" them is the goal (i.e. making them "normal"). He even muses on multiple occasions as to whether some patients have "lost their souls", which reeks of eugenics. Sacks does occasionally show a better understanding of the neurodivergent than his colleagues at the time but that seems to have been a low bar to clear. His empathy feels woefully held back by some deep sense of inequality between himself and his patients. He's also an adept writer but parts of these stories seem like they are embellished. Not that these patients and their conditions weren't real but much of the dialogue and narrative particularities seem dramatized. Writings by the patients themselves would have been more enlightening.Â
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism