An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales | Oliver Sacks

An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales | Oliver Sacks | One of my favorite books

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An Anthropologist ...

	An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales Oliver Sacks Vintage, 1996 - 327 pages average customer review:based on 48 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

One of his best books!

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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One of my favorite books

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.

Color blindness and autism

What if a painter is color blind. Absolute color blindness is a rare condition. Sacks encountered a painter who had been injured. The color blindness experienced meant to the painter that everything appeared wrong. He particularly missed the colors of spring. Things were leaden. The artist did derive pleasure from looking at drawings. He did start painting again, black and white paintings. As time passed there was evidenced in the painting a lessening of fear and depression.

Sacks describes a a surgeon with Tourette's syndrome. Writers on temporal lobe epilepsy have spoken of the doubling of consciousness. One of the subjects of the essays, Franco, has a prodigious memory and a gift for painting. He paints the town of his boyhood incessantly. His Pontito is minutely accurate. Returning to the town was not the intense experience Franco expected. Everything seemed small.

Sacks writes of the savant syndrome in a child called Stephen, an accomplished artist. He has extraordinary powers of visual perception. Savant talents seem to have a more autonomous even automatic quality than normal ones.

The anthropologist on Mars is Temple Grandin. Her work devising cattle chutes is described. She is constantly trying to understand her own autism.

Oliver Sack's medical stories are sui generis. Running into them is always a delight.

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Underscores the complexity of the human mind

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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Excellent in every way!

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.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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