Mariya Obukhovskaya- Eng 24
In his book “An Anthropologist on Mars”, Oliver Sacks often uses investigation to tell his stories. Through the use of investigation Sacks discusses seven medical stories of people with neurological conditions such as amnesia, blindness, Tourette syndrome and autism. Sackes investigates his subjects very thoroughly and writes several in-depth evaluations exploring his subjects along with other historical case studies of patients with similar symptoms.
Sacks uses investigate methods all of the subjects in his book. A good example of investigation that comes to mind in this in the book comes from the story Prodigies where the subject is investigated and characterized as a “savant”. To be a savant, an individual would characteristically be brilliant in a given area of expertise. In the case of Stephen Wiltshire, his area of expertise was drawing. The images he was capable of recreating on paper were incredible and he became thought of as a talented artist. The only one who did not seem to recognize Stephen’s talents was Stephen himself. …show more content…
Through art of investigation Sacks discovers the people that are featured in his essays by looking at them more then case studies. For this book Sacks often had to travel to very far destinations. He made it a point to travel outside the hospital setting, to interact with his subjects in their own environments. He normally spends several days with his subjects at their own homes. The people Sacks studied are both patients and subjects, but most importantly Sacks brought out the humanity in his subjects. To answer the question if the people he studied are “patients” or “subjects” or both, they are both but they are more subjects then patients because he sees them outside the hospital setting. Through these interesting stories we see what it is like to live with various disabilities and diseases. It’s very emotional to see how these people and their families cope with their variouse disorders.
It is this writer’s opinion that the people contained in the studies in the book are both patients and subjects, however sacks more often refers to them as subjects. In the preface to “An Anthropologist on Mars”, Sacks makes the important claim that it is his goal to explore his “subject’s” lives as they live in the real world” (xx). In his own words, he is acting the role of a “naturalist” (Sacks
In his book “An Anthropologist on Mars”, Oliver Sacks often uses investigation to tell his stories. Through the use of investigation Sacks discusses seven medical stories of people with neurological conditions such as amnesia, blindness, Tourette syndrome and autism. Sackes investigates his subjects very thoroughly and writes several in-depth evaluations exploring his subjects along with other historical case studies of patients with similar symptoms.
Sacks uses investigate methods all of the subjects in his book. A good example of investigation that comes to mind in this in the book comes from the story Prodigies where the subject is investigated and characterized as a “savant”. To be a savant, an individual would characteristically be brilliant in a given area of expertise. In the case of Stephen Wiltshire, his area of expertise was drawing. The images he was capable of recreating on paper were incredible and he became thought of as a talented artist. The only one who did not seem to recognize Stephen’s talents was Stephen himself. …show more content…
Through art of investigation Sacks discovers the people that are featured in his essays by looking at them more then case studies. For this book Sacks often had to travel to very far destinations. He made it a point to travel outside the hospital setting, to interact with his subjects in their own environments. He normally spends several days with his subjects at their own homes. The people Sacks studied are both patients and subjects, but most importantly Sacks brought out the humanity in his subjects. To answer the question if the people he studied are “patients” or “subjects” or both, they are both but they are more subjects then patients because he sees them outside the hospital setting. Through these interesting stories we see what it is like to live with various disabilities and diseases. It’s very emotional to see how these people and their families cope with their variouse disorders.
It is this writer’s opinion that the people contained in the studies in the book are both patients and subjects, however sacks more often refers to them as subjects. In the preface to “An Anthropologist on Mars”, Sacks makes the important claim that it is his goal to explore his “subject’s” lives as they live in the real world” (xx). In his own words, he is acting the role of a “naturalist” (Sacks