Sacks compares neurological patients to archetypal figures in classical fables, explaining that he alludes to both case studies and literary tales throughout the book to emphasize the fantastical nature of his patients’ experiences. Sacks groups his stories into four parts: “Losses,” “Excesses,” “Transports,” and “The World of the Simple.” Sacks structures each case history as individual chapters to convey his patients’ unique qualities and stories, thus making them fully human to the reader. However, injuries to the right hemisphere are just as common, though they often present as more “bizarre.” In this collection, Sacks relays 24 stories of his patients who experienced unusual brain injuries or neurological conditions.
Most neurological studies are conducted on the left hemisphere of the brain because that is the area that processes language and schema.
In the Preface to The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Sacks pinpoints the core of his work: “Neurology’s favorite word is ‘deficit’” (5).
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