The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
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| Author | Oliver Sacks |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Neurology, psychology |
| Genre | Case history |
| Publisher |
Summit Books (US) Gerald Duckworth (UK) |
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Publication date
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1985 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 233 (first edition) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 12313889 |
| 616.8 19 | |
| LC Class | RC351 .S195 1985 |
| Preceded by | A Leg to Stand On (1984) |
| Followed by | Seeing Voices (1989) |
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales is a 1985 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks describing the case histories of some of his patients. The title of the book comes from the case study of a man with visual agnosia.The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat became the basis of an opera of the same name by Michael Nyman, which premiered in 1986.
The book comprises twenty-four essays split into four sections, each dealing with a particular aspect of brain function such as deficits and excesses in the first two sections (with particular emphasis on the right hemisphere of the brain) while the third and fourth describe phenomenological manifestations with reference to spontaneous reminiscences, altered perceptions, and extraordinary qualities of mind found in mentally handicapped people.
The individual essays in this book include:
Christopher Rawlence wrote the libretto for a chamber opera—directed by Michael Morris with music by Michael Nyman—based on the title story. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat was first produced by the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1986. A television version of the opera was subsequently broadcast in the UK.
Peter Brook adapted Sacks's book into an acclaimed theatrical production, L'Homme Qui..., which premiered at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris, in 1993. An Indian theatre company performed a play entitled The Blue Mug, based on the book, starring Rajat Kapoor, Konkona Sen Sharma, Ranvir Shorey, and Vinay Pathak.
The subject of one chapter of this book is a man named Jimmie G. with anterograde memory loss; this name is similar to that of John G, a character in Memento, a movie in which the main protagonist has the same defect.
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