As a child, I watched Alfred Hitchcock Theater, The Twilight Zone and other science fiction or horror shows. Often times the storyline was based on a victim's mental problems or their skewed perception of the world. Looking back, I remember the fascination I felt when watching one specific episode of the Twillight Zone. In this particular episode, a man turned into a zombie by some type of poison. Essentially he was still alive, but he was dead to the world. In the end he was embalmed while he was completely conscious yet could not say anything to prevent it. Like this incident, every episode captivated me but when it was over I could sleep easy because there was no possibility of any of it happening. Oliver Sacks disrupts my childhood understanding of what is plausible and what is not in the real world. In his Book, The Man Who mistook his Wife for a Hat, Sacks compiles a group of stories that appeal to the curiosity and compassion of a young boy through his close look at human experiences in the eyes of science, medicine and new technology.

The chapters discussing "Losses" and "Transports" sparked my interest the most. The first story that caught my attention was about the sixty

Madeline suffered from Cerebral Palsy a disease that causes rigid, convulsive muscles in the legs and arms. Children with the disease often have a difficult time crawling, walking and grasping objects. As time passes they do not get any better. Formerly, it was called Little's Disease in 1860 by the English surgeon William Little, today it is known as Spastic Diplegia, a category of Cerebral Palsy (Introduction). Today medications, surgery and braces help children with Cerebral Palsy improve nerve and muscle coordination, treat related medical problems and correct abnormalities (Introduction).

Carlson, Neil R. Foundations of Physiological Psychology. Allyn and Bacon. London. 1999.

Sacks, Oliver. The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. Touchstone Book. New York. 1985.

Sack does not give any explanation about what Bhagawhandi may have suffered from. I take this last story to explore what I think may have been wrong. From the story, I felt she suffered from a Dysembryoplasic Neuroepithelial Tumor (Case). DNT usually occurs in the patients first 20 years of life. They are often found in the temporal or frontal lobes. Bhagawhandi's tumor was found in the frontal lobe. DNT have many intracortical nodules that vary in size. Its cells resemble "well-differentiated oligodendroglioma". However the cells are often found in clusters and other intricate shapes. Because of the tumor the "adjacent cerebral cortex often exhibits cortical dysphasia with disturbed lamination and disarray in architecture (Final).

year old Madeline J. who was suffers from being "congenitally blind" and has "cerebral palsy"(Sack 59). She was a very bright and intelligent woman that gained all her knowledge and learning from listening to books and from talking to people. She had never learned Braille because her hands were "Useless godforsaken lumps of dough..." Through simple tests, Sacks discovered that her hand recognized light tou

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1304
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)