The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales | Topics for Discussion & Projects

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

In many of Oliver Sacks' stories, the main character is viewed as less than human. Do you think this viewpoint is a result of their particular disease or just the way the medical world views its patients?

Sacks is extremely concerned with the role of the "self" in his patients' conditions. Pick one person and discuss whether you feel they lack a "self" or if their sense of "self" is just altered by their disorder.

Play the role of doctor and try to formulate a well thought out explanation as to why Jimmie G.'s memory stops at 1945.

As the reader, do you feel Sacks is making fun of his patients by choosing to write about them or is his book a useful tool in the study of neuropsychological disorders?

Should patients with "phantoms" be diagnosed as having a mental disorder or are phantom limbs and pains just the natural...
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