Seeing Other Solutions

British-born neurologist Oliver Sacks has a knack for writing case studies that meld personal observation with scientific explanation and philosophical musing. In such classics as The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1970), Awakenings (1973) and An Anthropologist on Mars (1995), he has mapped the contours of neurological diversity, while emphasizing the resilience of the human psyche.

In his latest collection of true-life tales, The Mind's Eye, the 77-year-old Sacks focuses on vision problems and challenges — including his own. For the first time, he writes in detail about his face and topographical blindness. So severe are these maladies that Sacks can't even recognize himself in a mirror, nor wander his own neighborhood without getting lost. (Read an excerpt from The Mind's Eye.) … Back to Article