#and all of that is interesting on its own but even moreso when juxtaposed with the mary who has been haunting the narrative

[certifiedwerewolf]

As I slog my way through season twelve I am finding that I Do Not Like Mary Winchester As A Person, and this is a problem because I am writing a fic wherein John Winchester is a nuanced and complex person and not a card-carrying mustache-twirling evil villain and quite apart from character demonization not being particularly interesting anyway, I do not think having a Mary who doesn't much like her kids and kind of wishes she'd never had them would make the vibe of the fic hit the way I want it to

[mvansuch0]

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales...

My name is Mary Van Such and I am a Psychology and Child Development major. I have been working in the field of Child Development for the last 18 years and am currently an Early Childhood Educator.While my passion is in working with children, I am intrigued by all things Psychology and am specifically interested in Abnormal Psychology (and not just because I’ve mentally diagnosed everyone I know). 

Cognitive Psychology isn’t exactly my cup of tea, as I wouldn’t exactly call myself a scientist. I seem to recall my high school biology teacher reminding me that I was sweet, but I wouldn’t know the difference between mitosis and meiosis if it bit me. Unfortunately, for a time, I thought mitosis could, in fact, bite me. In taking Cognitive Psychology this semester, I have found myself very interested in the way that the brain influences every aspect of human existence. Recognizing that different parts of the brain control different aspects of senses, memories, and emotions, I set out this term to study the parts of the brain, the way it works, and the issues that can come from it. When the book blog was assigned, I just picked a book from the list without much thought. Actually, due to this pandemic business, I picked the first book that Amazon would ship with any haste. The winner of the shipment race was none other than The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat and Other Clinical Tales (1985… written the year I was born, curious?), by Oliver Sacks (followed just days later by Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman...its next on my list). I knew I recognized the name Oliver Sacks, but couldn’t imagine why, I discovered as I read the book that he made reference to ‘Awakenings’ several times… I didn’t seem to realize that it was a book I had read until I finished the book. Silly me. I also find it ironic that during the time I was supposed to be reading the book, I stayed up late one night watching the 1990 film ‘Awakenings’ on HBO. Strange coincidence? Unconscious cognitive parallel? Who knows? Actually, Oliver Sacks might! Oliver Sacks, MD was born in 1933 in London, England. He came from a family of scientists, as his father was a general practitioner and his mother was a surgeon. He earned his medical degree at Oxford University and did his residency and fellowship in San Francisco and at UCLA. From then, he moved to New York and was practicing as a Neurologist, which is where these stories originated. From Sacks’s practice in the Bronx came the study found in the book Awakenings.He is also known for An Anthropologist on Mars, Seeing Voices, The Island of the Colorblind. He wrote about being a doctor in Migraine and he also wrote about being a patient in A Leg to Stand On. His autobiography, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood was published in 2001. His most recent books are Musicophilia, The Mind’s Eye, and Hallucinations.

In February 2015, Dr. Sacks announced that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, a previously treated ocular melanoma which had spread to his liver, and he died in August of that year. In his lifetime, Oliver Sacks worked as a leading Neurologist, and as a professor of Neurology at NYU School of Medicine. He was well-known in the medical community, well practiced, and his writing was a testament to his work. As a best-selling author, he would be considered extremely knowledgeable on the subject of cognitive neuroscience, and as a reader of his work, it is obvious as to why. Oliver Sacks’ The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales tells the brief stories of case studies that center around the idea of neurology. The book is broken up into four parts, each part giving color to a different aspect of abnormalities in cognitive neurology. Part One discusses the cases of Losses or deficits in the regular function of the brain. He alludes that ‘mental illness’  is too confining a term, and that each of the subjects of his study find ways of compensating for their deficits with other senses, other parts of the brain. The cases discussed in Part One include Dr. P, who has face blindness (which I thought was something made up in the Netflix show Arrested Development), he is the subject of the title of the book. His rare face blindness keeps him from being able to tell the difference between his wife’s face and his hat. The other cases include those who suffer from Korsakov’s Syndrome (cannot remember things for more than a few seconds), the loss of Proprioception (a person who cannot feel their own body), someone with Cerebral Palsy who cannot control or perceive her own hands, a Parkinson’s patient who walks tilted because the Parkinson’s is keeping him from integrating the information from his vestibular system (his inner level), and a woman who has had a stroke and cannot even conceive the idea of the “left.” With the help of Dr. Sacks, Part One shows how these patients find ways of compensating. Some of them are consciously able to overcome, and some of them find unconscious ways to deal with their neurological problems. Each of the cases that are studied in Part One find ways to live fairly normal lives.

Part two divulges the Excesses found in neurological diseases. It juxtaposes the deficits and deals in the excess of certain processes of the brain. While Part One talked about the way the brain compensated for the neurological illnesses, Part Two focuses more on the life that these patients lead, and how they are affected by their cognitive dysfunctions. Many of the patients discussed in Part Two have Tourette’s Syndrome, which wasn’t well known and thought to be rare. During the time of Dr. Sacks’ practice, the medical community realized that this was far more common than once believed. An interesting point throughout Part Two is that some of the cases studied found some of their excessive behaviors as benefits in their lives, rather than hindrances. The chaos associated with something like Tourette’s Syndrome was explained as a benefit in that, the lack of it made him very dull and without a sense of ‘self.’ Part Three deals in Transports where the neurological conditions alter the patients view of the world, and in some ways transports them to a different time, different world, different concept. One of these transports includes the constant sounds of music, nostalgia, and euphoria that turn out to be related to seizures in the temporal lobe. Another case that also describes a euphoric sensation turns out to be a brain tumor. One patient’s story is about a drug-induced murder that was forgotten, only to be brought back into graphic detail by terrible brain damage. Dr. Sacks also writes about a famous mystic, said to have divine visions, but claims them physiological in origin. He attributes them to seizures and hallucinations. (In later research I learned that Oliver Sacks considered himself a ‘Jewish Atheist.’) In Part Four of the book, Dr. Sacks shares his work with patients that are mentally challenged, intellectually disabled, and ultimately looked down on by society as pathetic. While the disabilities keep them from achieving certain statuses, the subjects are recognized as being rich in beauty. Many of the patients discussed find gifts in the arts and Dr. Sacks finds a way to see their talents. These talents include poetic prowess, musical knowledge, mathematical gifts, and artistry. Through these gifts, these subjects are observed as achieving great joy (even without intellectual ability).

While this book does not argue one specific aspect of cognitive psychology or neuroscience, it does tell the very human tale of a doctor who recognizes humanity in every person, despite the insufficiencies of their brain. Dr. Sacks’ views are of the ways that these subjects relate to others that have been studied in the field, and ways that they are individuals. In my opinion, this book does not define an aspect of neuroscience, but it does add humanity to an otherwise robotic field. The intended audience seems to be the common person, the terms that are associated with these case studies are defined and the stories are described in a way that they are relative to anyone reading (though I’m sure someone with beforehand knowledge of the subject would understand the medical terminology more readily). It is clear throughout this book the Oliver Sacks is well-versed in his subject, he also makes reference to many other neuroscientists and psychologists, as well as other clinicians. I felt that my brief introduction to cognitive psychology granted me access to everything that Dr. Sacks was trying to convey through this book. I was able to understand when the patients discussed would undergo tests on different parts of the brain, and I felt I was able to understand why these parts of the brain may have contributed to the neurological disorders that were described.

Now comes the time for honesty, I have dropped Cognitive Psychology in the past because I found the subject boring, I am not a science person, and I didn’t want to do the work to make it through the early weeks on the different parts and functions of the brain. When I started reading this book (prior to realizing that I recognized the author and had read his work before), I was bored to death. I even had to download the Audible version to read along with me so that I could stay focused. In concluding my reading and analysis of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, I am much more intrigued by cognitive neuroscience that I could have imagined. I think what intrigues me most in my studies is that each individual  has a story. These stories are influenced by both nature and nurture. The brain is a unique storyteller in that, it may have the same parts, but it tells a different story with each individual. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in cognitive neuroscience and moreso, the stories that go along with it. 

References Sacks, O. (1985). The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales. New York: Summit Books. https://www.oliversacks.com/