The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: Introduction to Part Three

by Oliver Sacks
In this classic collection of "clinical tales," neurologist Oliver Sacks explores a range of neurological conditions and phenomena.

Here are links to our lists for the collection: Part One Introduction; The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat; The Lost Mariner; The Disembodied Lady; The Man Who Fell out of Bed; Hands; Phantoms; On the Level; Eyes Right!; The President's Speech; Part Two Introduction; Witty Ticcy Ray; Cupid's Disease; A Matter of Identity; Yes, Father-Sister; The Possessed; Part Three Introduction; Reminiscence; Incontinent Nostalgia; A Passage to India; The Dog Beneath the Skin; Murder; The Visions of Hildegard; Part Four Introduction; Rebecca; A Walking Grove; The Twins; The Autist Artist
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. reminiscent
    serving to bring to mind
    As soon as we attend to phenomena as such, to the actual quality of experience or thought or action, we have to use terms more reminiscent of a poem or painting.
  2. intelligible
    capable of being apprehended or understood
    How, say, is a dream intelligible in terms of function?
  3. discourse
    an extended communication dealing with some particular topic
    We have always two universes of discourse—call them ‘physical' and ‘phenomenal', or what you will—one dealing with questions of quantitative and formal structure, the other with those qualities that constitute a ‘world'.
  4. phenomenal
    relating to a state or process known through the senses
    We have always two universes of discourse—call them ‘physical' and ‘phenomenal', or what you will—one dealing with questions of quantitative and formal structure, the other with those qualities that constitute a ‘world'.
  5. supererogatory
    more than is needed, desired, or required
    We can usually tell a man's story, relate passages and scenes from his life, without bringing in any physiological or neurological considerations: such considerations would seem, at the least, supererogatory, if not frankly absurd or insulting.
  6. vicissitude
    mutability in life or nature
    For we consider ourselves, and rightly, ‘free'—at least, determined by the most complex human and ethical considerations, rather than by the vicissitudes of our neural functions or nervous systems.
  7. pathological
    caused by or altered by or manifesting disease
    In the first half of this book we described cases of the obviously
    pathological—situations in which there is some blatant neurological excess or deficit.
  8. blatant
    without any attempt at concealment; completely obvious
    In the first half of this book we described cases of the obviously
    pathological—situations in which there is some blatant neurological excess or deficit. Sooner or later it is obvious to such patients, or their relatives, no less than to their doctors, that there is ‘something (physically) the matter’.
  9. disposition
    your usual mood
    Their inner worlds, their dispositions, may indeed be altered, transformed; but, as becomes clear, this is due to some gross (and almost quantitative) change in neural function.
  10. poignant
    keenly distressing to the mind or feelings
    Such ‘transports’—often of poignant intensity, and shot through with personal feeling and meaning—tend to be seen, like dreams, as psychical: as a manifestation, perhaps, of unconscious or preconscious activity (or, in the mystically-minded, of something ‘spiritual’), not as something ‘medical’, let alone ‘neurological’.
  11. manifestation
    an indication of the existence of some person or thing
    Such ‘transports’—often of poignant intensity, and shot through with personal feeling and meaning—tend to be seen, like dreams, as psychical: as a manifestation, perhaps, of unconscious or preconscious activity (or, in the mystically-minded, of something ‘spiritual’), not as something ‘medical’, let alone ‘neurological’.
  12. intrinsic
    belonging to a thing by its very nature
    They have an intrinsic dramatic, or narrative, or personal ‘sense’, and so are not apt to be seen as ‘symptoms’.
  13. apt
    naturally disposed toward
    They have an intrinsic dramatic, or narrative, or personal ‘sense’, and so are not apt to be seen as ‘symptoms’.
  14. etiology
    the cause of a disease
    For it never occurs to us at first that a vision might be ‘medical’; and if an organic basis is suspected or found, this may be felt to ‘devalue’ the vision (though, of course, it does not—values, valuations, have nothing to do with etiology).
  15. paroxysm
    a sudden uncontrollable attack
    I should never diagnose epilepsy from the paroxysmal occurrence of ‘reminiscence’, without other symptoms, although I should suspect epilepsy if that super-positive mental state began to occur very frequently.
Created on Wed Sep 02 12:15:48 EDT 2020 (updated Wed Oct 28 13:16:55 EDT 2020)

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