The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat
- Posted by Daniel Flück on August 8th, 2007 filed in Publications
A reader told me once, that there is a book by Oliver Sacks about Losing Color Vision called The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales. It shall include some story about a man with a form of acquired color blindness.
I’ve read it—and couldn’t find any word about this colorblind man. Am I now completely blind? Or did I just pick up a wrong edition of this book?
Anyway, the book includes many interesting stories about very special clinical cases. For example a man who can’t really see the big picture anymore. He sees just tiny little details and can’t put them together anymore like to a see a face. That’s why he mistakes his wife as a hat—a true story.
Despite the fact that The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks didn’t include a story about the colorblind man, it is still worth reading.
August 9th, 2007 at 18:54
Oliver Sacks did write a book called “Island of the Colourblind”; it’s set on an island where a relatively high proportion of the inhabitants have rod monochromacy. But there’s nothing about colourblindess in The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat”, to the best of my recollection. I’ve read a little of “Island of the Colourblind”; it has beautiful descriptions.
(I have an old copy and it’s not even in the same country as I am right now! The closest anecdote there is is one about a man who receives a brain injury that makes him forget that there’s such a concept as sight, so not only is he blind, he doesn’t know he’s blind.)
August 11th, 2007 at 10:16
Island of the colour blind is a fascinating read - I’m sure that’s the book you really want.