The Mind's Eye by Oliver Sacks

I've enjoyed all the Oliver Sacks books I have read. The Mind's Eye begins with his usual case studies in neurology and psychiatry; this time, they are all visual conditions.

Oliver Sacks is popularly known for Robin Williams' portrayal of him in the film Awakenings and for highlighting the work of Temple Grandin. His title The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat was the first collection of his neurological cases I had read, and I found his writing clear, fascinating, and intriguing.

The Mind's Eye begins with a classical pianist who develops cortical atrophy, causing her to slowly forget the names and purposes of things. Looking at a painting, she differentiates the colors but cannot tell whether it is one object or many, or something to do with the ceiling—a clock, a fan? Yet, she can play the piano and even rearrange the music in her head with ease. Another case involves a very social woman becoming paralyzed and developing a new way to continue her busy schedule with friends and family, a new way to communicate. Sacks is a member of the Stereoscopic Society of New York, and over a few years, he helps another woman who lives without stereoscopic vision—the world she sees is all on a flat plane. Over the years, her vision changes, and she experiences the world in three dimensions for the first time.

Sacks is also a subject as he deals with face-blindness. He has no recollection of people's faces or places he has been, including his longtime assistant and another doctor he has seen weekly for years. Minutes after seeing them, he will not recognize them in the slightest. I rely on a strong photographic memory and found the descriptions of visual agnosia eye-opening.

Most fascinating were excerpts from Sacks's own journals when he developed a tumor behind his eye and the resulting procedures to remove it, leaving him without stereoscopic vision. Worse yet, over time he developed a loss of peripheral vision. All this while preparing his book Musicophilia.

His experiences as a patient with ocular melanoma were interesting, as well as the cases of people who either retained their visual memory after blindness or developed a whole new way of seeing, beyond what sighted people experience.

As always, his neurological cases are fascinating and I highly enjoy spending time with Oliver Sacks. The writing is engaging and his conversational tone opens up the technical aspects of neurology to me.

My other reviews for Oliver Sacks:

Oaxaca Journal

2010 / Hardcover / 264 pages