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Summary: Sheds Some Light On the Mind-Brain Relationship
Review: An Anthropologist On Mars sheds some light on the mind-brain relationship and the concept of one's self. Oliver Sacks, a neurologist, takes the reader through seven case studies of people with neurological disorders, exploring not only the particular disorders, but also his patients' individual personalities. Read the seven amazing stories in this book, entitled "The Case of the Colorblind Painter", "The Last Hippie", "A Surgeon's Life", "To See and Not See", "The Landscape of His Dreams", "Prodigies", and "An Anthropologist on Mars". Oliver Sacks presents his seven case studies of neurological disorder in an intruiging manner, and I recommend An Anthropologist On Mars to anyone with an interest in the workings of the human mind.
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Summary: Should be required reading for neuroscientists/educators!
Review: Boy, if I had any say in what they should require as reading for students in neuroscience, I would definitely put this book up there right along with any textbooks. This book, as usual for Dr. Sacks, puts a human face on neurological injury or trauma, so that everyone can understand. Unlike many doctors, Dr. Sacks sees not only the diagnositic testing, but the person inside who has to learn to adapt to their disability to survive. Each of these stories are poignant, and as a Deaf person who underwent a cochlear implant which failed, I found his story about the blind man Virgil, who became sighted (somewhat) and then lost his sight again, hitting very close to home. I actually borrowed this book from the library, but I am planning to buy it at first chance because there are so many intelligent quotes in this book, that I have already used in my own writings and plan to use it in teaching students. Dr. Sacks is one of the most intelligent medical writers we have today, and I for one am profoundly grateful he decided to write books on neurology. I wish that I had been exposed to his books earlier when I was in medical school for neuroscience. These stories about the people make neurology real and made neurological concepts understandable. It is not the research, the neurophysiology, the diagnostic testing which is so important, though they have their place in medical school: it is the fact that the people who have autism or who undergo strokes can teach us so much about ourselves, and many of them have surmounted huge obstacles to make something of their lives. It is all too easy in medical school, and in education to forget this. If you buy only one book on neuroscience this year, this should be the book. It is magnificent. Karen Sadler, Science education, University of Pittsburgh
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Summary: Excellent in every way!
Review: Expertly written, the stories are fascinating, endearing, & enlightening. You'll learn so much about how your own mind is wired by reading the stories of these very special people. The medical and literary communities need more people like Oliver Sacks.
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Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: I know very little about psychology, but I found this book to be both informative and touching. I first heard about it when a cook at my summer camp read us "The Last Hippie" during an evening program. I was fascinated by the story. Finally, when I picked up a copy of the book for myself, I read through the whole thing in a day. I actually cried during one of the stories. Oliver Sacks teaches you a lot about how the human brain works without getting too clinical, and lets the humanity of the people he profiles shine through. This is a really good book.
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Summary: One of his best books!
Review: I've read several books by this author, including "The man who mistook his wife for a hat", "The island of the color blind" and "Seeing voices", but I have to say that this is the one I've enjoyed the most. In keeping with the format of his hugely popular "The man who mistook his wife for a hat", Oliver Sacks presents his readers with several case stories that are both gripping and enlightening. As always, the author's greatest talent is being able to teach the general reader about the intricacies of the human mind, without reducing the particular patient to something other than human. The people behind each of these case studies are never reduced to being just freaks of nature, but are instead described with a great deal of respect. I highly recommend all of Dr Sacks' books, but this is the best one to start with if you're new to his work. However, if lengthy footnotes are a pet peeve of yours, you may want to stay away. I, on the other hand, along with many other of his readers, really enjoy the many footnotes as they give his books more depth and points the reader in new interesting directions.
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Summary: An unusual and compelling form of travel literature
Review: Oliver Sacks has a rare gift for sharing his professional interest with readers/listeners and entertaining us as we learn. As the title "An Anthropologist on Mars" implies, his world is filled with oddities of human nature, made to appear more human than odd by Sacks sensitive storytelling. I first visited the world of Oliver Sacks in 1987 when "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" arrived at the local library. His ability to simplify challenging patient histories made clinical neurology fascinating. With this new volume he returns to familiar territory. The added bonus of listening to Sacks read his own work is quite intimate. Particularly when he shares the story of Temple Grandin, an autistic professor unable to tolerate human touch but instinctively comforting animals, and sharing her ability with the meat industry, a group not traditionally thought of as sensitive. While listening to these "Paradoxical Tales", Oliver Sacks transports his audience to a world both unfamiliar and captivating. A place we may not wish to live, but hard to resist visiting.
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Summary: A sympathetic, almost poetic ,writer
Review: Oliver Sacks has the uncanny ability to take the reader into the minds and lives of his patients, and make them real. I've always found the autistic Temple Grandin particularly fascinating. Unable to understand human beings (hence the title, _An Anthropologist on Mars,_) she found she could connect with, and understand, animals. The other stories are equally interesting. An artist loses his color vision. At first he is terribly distaught. Then later he finds he enjoys it. For one, he begins to live at night, with a totally new life. He also finds (as others in his situation have discovered) that his eyesight is radically sharper--he can read a license plate a block away. Another of his patients suffers from Tourette's Syndrome. In his case one advantage is his reflexes become abnormally fast--he can dash in and out of revolving doors (and when he goes on medication he ends up slowed down, which results in some painful collusions.) An intriguing book that everyone should enjoy.
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Summary: Oliver Sacks Sends a Postcard from Mars
Review: Oliver Sacks' "An Anthropologist on Mars" is more than a collection of fascinating neurological case studies. Not only does Sacks offer a generous and holistic view of his subjects as complex individuals living in the real world, but he uses their disorders to raise provocative questions about what human Selfhood and intelligence mean. Is the color we see an objective external quality that is simply received by the brain, or is it constructed through an engagement between the brain and the environment? Are the memories that define our sense of who we are stored intact by the brain, awaiting retrieval, or must they be endlessly re-created? What are the potential relationships between memory and creativity, between art and disease, or between spirituality and disease? And perhaps most importantly, how can we separate the essence of individual identity from a lifelong neurological disorder, and at what cost is such a separation achieved? My only regret is that Sacks did not write some sort of postscript to bring together, and discuss more fully side-by-side, the many interesting question raised throughout this rich text.
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Summary: Underscores the complexity of the human mind
Review: Oliver Sacks' An Anthropologist on Mars is a delightful and enlightening book that reveals the unparalleled complexity of the human brain.
Sacks, an accomplished neurologist and author, presents seven case studies that highlight different neurological phenomena. In his case studies, Sacks follows a newly colorblind painter, a man who can create no new memories, a surgeon with Tourette's syndrome, a blind man who regains his sight, a painter obsessed with images from his childhood, an autistic boy artist, and a high-functioning autistic professor. Sacks does not treat his case studies as dry medical oddities but rather discusses their neurological experiences within their broader human existence. Unlike other authors who know their patients only distantly, Sacks works intimately with his case studies and develops meaningful relationships that translate into a deeper, more insightful understanding of his patients and their experiences.
While Sacks is clearly a brilliant neurologist, what makes this book so powerful is his ability to weave in medicine, science, history, and philosophy into a coherent narrative. Every case study illuminates a series of important and thought-provoking questions that challenge the everyday assumptions of perception, reality, intelligence, and what it means to be human. In the end, the reader emerges with a better appreciation of the complexity of the human mind.
The book is very well documented with copious footnotes provided throughout the book. Occasionally, Sacks neglects to define some arcane medical terms, so readers would do well to keep a dictionary close at hand. Overall, the book is highly accessible to the general reader who will find it intriguing and intellectually rewarding.
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Summary: Unforgettable people
Review: Science, medicine and psychology aside, these people who are triumphing over the most inhuman odds are unforgettable and inspiring. Most would be unlovable to us if we knew them personally, but that's not important. All of us know people who've had many more advantages in life who have not lived up to their potentials. These folks more than make up for the underachievers. They're all somehow brilliant in their own rights.
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