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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
A collection of neurological case narratives. Use it to ask what a single case can show and what a description of symptoms can leave out.
- Author and origin
- Oliver Sacks (United Kingdom / United States)Original language: English. First published in 1985; reissued in later editions including 2023 as documented by the Oliver Sacks Foundation.
- Genre and form
- Nonfiction (Clinical case narrative)Memoirs, clinical case collections, popular psychology, self-help, and histories or critiques of psychological science.
- Pairing and evidence
- Clinical or lived narrativeA memoir or clinical case collection. Individual narratives are distinguished from systematic evidence; a paper is paired only where the connection is substantive.
- Sources inspected
- 1 text/abstract inspected, 1 metadata checked (of 2)1 with the primary text or archive/edition record checked, 0 with an indexed abstract read, 1 with bibliographic metadata checked, 0 not verified.
The work and edition history
First published in 1985, the collection is described by the author’s estate as a set of neurological case narratives. The official book page also identifies later editions. It provides the scope used here; individual chapters are not summarized.
Psychological reading
The Oliver Sacks Foundation describes the book as a collection of neurological case narratives, and this profile uses only that description. Chapters and individual cases were not opened, so no case is summarized. Read each narrative as one person's account.
Why it earns inclusion
What can a detailed case reveal that a broad category leaves out? The collection gives students a reason to ask that question, and to consider the difference between understanding one person and drawing a conclusion about a population.
Academic pairing and claim scope
No paper is formally paired. OpenStax’s discussion of case studies is the methodological companion: detailed accounts can offer depth, while generalization requires caution. The textbook does not assess Sacks’s cases.
Limits and controversies
The estate’s description establishes the kind of book being discussed, not the accuracy of every case or an intervention’s efficacy. No diagnosis, population rate or treatment recommendation is inferred from the collection here.
Evidence behind the claims
Oliver Sacks's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat was first published in 1985 as a collection of neurological case narratives, according to the Oliver Sacks Foundation.
OpenStax contrasts the depth of case studies with the limits of generalizing from a small number of cases.
Authors and researchers
- Oliver Sacks. British neurologist and author whose 1985 collection popularized narrative clinical neuropsychology.
In the Psy101 course
- OpenStax Psychology 2e, section 3.4: The Brain and Spinal CordChapter 3, Biopsychology. Concept. Suggested conceptual background; a mention of this work in the section has not been verified.Connects focal neurological lesions and cortical specialization to introductory discussions of the brain and nervous system.
- OpenStax Psychology 2e, section 5.1: Sensation versus PerceptionChapter 5, Sensation and Perception. Concept. Suggested conceptual background; a mention of this work in the section has not been verified.Offered as a discussion neighbor for the perception chapter; no case in the book was inspected for this profile.
- OpenStax Psychology 2e, section 2.2: Approaches to ResearchChapter 2, Psychological Research. Method. Suggested conceptual background; a mention of this work in the section has not been verified.Examines the role and generalizability limits of clinical case studies in neuropsychology.
Educational reading guide only, not clinical diagnosis or treatment guidance. This course map indicates introductory curriculum relevance rather than clinical proof.See the full course map.
Sources and inspection
Of 2 cited sources, 1 had primary text or archive/edition records checked, 0 had an indexed abstract read, and 1 had bibliographic metadata checked (0 unverified). Literary works and memoirs are distinguished from empirical research studies.
- [1]Sacks, O. (2022, March 1). The man who mistook his wife for a hat | oliver sacks. Oliver Sacks Foundation. https://www.oliversacks.com/oliver-sacks-books/the-man-who-mistook-his-wife-for-a-hat/Publisher or bibliographic record. Work, edition, or catalog record.Bibliographic metadata or reference record checkedChecked the official Oliver Sacks Foundation book page confirming 1985 first publication, neurological case-narrative scope, and 2023 reissue; individual chapters not opened.
- [2]Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020). Psychology 2e. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/2-2-approaches-to-researchReference work. Historical or biographical context.Primary text or passage readSelected clinical/case-study discussion and comparison of depth and generalizability read.