The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat

"The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat".

Im really starting to like Oliver Sacks, he describes case histories of some of his patients. I like to read about his patients as there so interesting and unique. This title of "the man who mistook his wife for a hat" came from the case study of a man with visual Agnosia.

Dr. P is a music teacher who is referred to Oliver Sacks. Sacks notices that P faces him with his ears and not his eyes. He focuses on the doctors features one at a time. In this interview, his wife is present. P grasps his wife's head and tried to lift it off and put on his own head. His wife gave no sign that anything odd had happened. P functions by making little songs about what he is doing. If the song is interrupted then he stops until he finds a sensorium clue on how to proceed.

P is unaware that he has a problem with visual images. He could not recognise things around him, even his own face, wife, and family. He would recognise people by voice. He could pick out a key feature that he could identify the face. For example he was shown a portrait of his family. He didn't recognise any of them. He could think of one or two people. He recognised his brother Paul, square jaw, big teeth. Did he make a guess that it was Paul by the features?