Introduction
The story “The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” by Oliver Sacks is a rather interesting tale of a man who suffers from some form of the neurologic condition resulting in him being unable to look at the entirety of a particular object but rather on its features instead. While it is evident that the character of Dr. P has continued to maintain his mental brilliance in that he is still a musical genius and can speak normally the rather sad fact remains that he seems blissfully unaware of his current problem and seems to think of it as a problem with his eyes rather than a severe and debilitating neurological condition.
Favorite Quotation and Explanation
“But who was more tragic, who was more damned – the man who knew it or the man who did not?”
This particular quote resonates with the entirety of the story due to how Dr. P throughout the entirety of the prose didn’t seem to notice or even consider the seriousness of his situation. He merely thought of thinking of his wife as a hat as mildly amusing, that his inability to read sheet music a minor inconvenience, and that being unable to recognize people aside from particular details of their face or their voice as being rather normal.
In the story, it is noted that Zazetsky, a person who suffered from a similar condition fought tooth and nail to “normalize” his way of thinking. This is interesting to take note of since Zazetsky knew there was something wrong with himself and tried everything to overcome it while Dr. P didn’t even seem to mind or care. One of them was full of frustration over his condition while the other didn’t even think he had a condition at all. It is this perspective that is important to take note of in the story because Dr. P seemingly was able to live his life free from any perceived problems. If the condition was not pointed out to him he wouldn’t have even considered it a problem.
In fact, for me, the story has a certain life lesson that states that “a problem only becomes a problem if you acknowledge it as such”. Dr. P didn’t acknowledge it and he lived a rather fulfilled life while Zazetsky lived his full of frustration. This particular lesson can be applied to all our lives in that we often put more importance on our problems than we really should. If we lived our lives in which we take our problems in stride like Dr. P we may find ourselves living a better and more fulfilled life.
References
Sacks, Oliver. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and other clinical tales. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998.