The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat.

            Men ought to know that from nothing else but the brain come joys, delights, laughter and sports, and sorrows, griefs despondency, and lamentations. And by this, in an especial manner, we acquire wisdom and knowledge, and see and hear and know what are foul and what are fair, what are bad and what are good, what are sweet and what are unsavory.And by the same organ we become mad and delirious, and fears and terrors assail us. All these things we endure from the brain when it is not healthy. In these ways I am of the opinion that the brain exercises the greatest power in the man. --Hippocrates, "On the Sacred Disease" (4th century B.C) "It is human nature to be curious about how we see and hear; why some things feel good and others hurt; how we move; how we reason, learn, remember, and forget; the nature of anger and madness"(Bear, Connors, Paradiso 3). This quote, found in my neuroscience textbook, basically sums up why we study and write about the brain. The brain has!.
             been a curiosity to man since the beginning of science. The actual term "neuroscience" is as recent as the 1970s, but the study of the brain is as old as science itself. Evolving over time, the discipline of neuroscience has undergone significant changes to become what it is today. New findings, new discoveries are always changing what we know, or think we know, about the brain. It is with this in mind, that I attempt to discuss Oliver Sacks collection of narratives. Referring to himself as a physician, Oliver Sacks has dedicated his entire life to studying the person behind neurological deficits. His interest lies not in the disease itself, but also in the person-"the suffering, afflicted, fighting, human subject-" and he presents these people in short narratives collected in The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Oliver writes these stories to teach the reader about the identity of people who fall victim to neurological diseases.