Anthropologist on Mars free essay sample

On Mars Essay Assignment Oliver Sacks is a very famous doctor of neurology as well as a writer. He spent most of his adult life treating patients. Oliver Sacks mostly concentrated on disorders of the brain and nervous system. In a lot of the cases that Sacks dealt with, there was nothing he was able to do to heal the patients. His goal was to find a way to live with and accept their condition as well as possible. Sacks enjoyed dealing with cases mostly about experiences of real people struggling to live with unusual conditions. That’s where he wanted to find ways to help these patients to the best of his and medical ability out there. Throughout his cases he studied he came across patients who had different syndromes such as the Korsakov’s syndrome which is a memory loss disorder. He also came across patients with Tourette’s Syndrom which is a disorder of repeated movements, and these are just several of them that he studied and treated. Sacks’ had a particular method of investigation for all of his patients. He used a more of â€Å"personalistic† method that involved an understanding of the patient’s self and identity. He believed strongly that patients could be taught to adapt, or get used to their conditions as fully as possible even if they remained sick. He did it in a matter where not only he examined and learned patient’s history but he became involved in their personal lives as well. Oliver Sacks who was a neurologist used various techniques where he learned each individual differently in a very personal and respectful manner. He examined their qualities from inside out. Sacks would make time out of his busy schedule to do private outings with each one of the patients who he was treating. He made arrangements to be part of activities in such a way where he can learn more about the problem and have better idea of how to treat these individuals. I believe Sacks had several reasons for approaching his investigations in such unique matters. By getting very friendly with his clients he was able to find out things that no one else would. Sacks tried to get to know his clients by spending time with them out of his work schedule. Oliver Sacks discovers individuals by doing activities with them. He would try to study each case in each unique way. He took his patients to concerts where he was able to see how they react in different circumstance and what part of brain they were mostly using. He would note that some memory would be there for a certain amount of time and then they would go back to their own ways. For example, in the story of the â€Å"Last Hippie†, Greg would become a different person when he was around music or you talked to him about certain musicians. That was Greg’s passion and the only thing that changed and altered his mood. Although, once some time passed and music was no where around, Greg went back to his grumpy old self. He would be in his own little world. He would act very strangely around people. Greg would also make no sense when you were having a conversation with him. The people that Sacks studies are both â€Å"patients† and subjects to him I believe. In one perspective when he has a case that he studies it can be classified as a subject because he has so many cases that he studies and observes patients in. Although, on the other hand it can be classified to him as patients because he actually cares about each and every one of them and tries to hang out and spend extra time with them. Not many doctors these days show such emotions and attention as Sacks did to his patients. He truly got involved in each case he studied very deeply and became very close with his patients. Having a disease can take over your mind and body. You become a different individual, different person and act sometimes in way where people don’t believe a person can change in such a way. Having a disease where you lose your memory and forget stuff what occurred to you in your previous years, can affect you tremendously. You can act very immature, say things not according to your age or even do things that are also very odd. Greg, in the â€Å"Last Hippie†, acted very strangely his parents described once he got diagnosed with his disease. When his own parents would talk to him, they said he had odd responses and kind of replied with comments and phrases that made absolutely no sense what so ever, although, Greg had some memory left when he was around music. Greg remained trapped in a distant past because his memory of recent activities only lasts a few minutes. He would act normally, remember songs and get involved in conversations like healthy people would only when he was talking or listening to music. In another Oliver Sack’s story â€Å"To See and Not See† he talks about a 55 year old man who had been blind since he was a child. Many doctors believed that his blindness resulted from a genetic condition and there was nothing able to be done. Although after numerous visit to different specialists, he found doctors who believed he may not be permanently blind. Virgil gets operated on one eye and slowly tries to recover and obtain his vision. Due to not seeing for so many years, he has difficulty adjusting and understanding the light and images moving in front of him. As a blind man, Virgil had a rich life. He enjoyed great freedom because of his excellent sense of touch, hearing and smell. But with sight, he was unable to understand the visual work around him. With such big change made in Virgil’s life, he was more aware and fearful of his condition. It took some time for him to get used to seeing objects and recognizing people after all. It can also be very hard for a patient with a disease to understand themselves. Some diseases have you more aware of what’s going on around you and sometimes you are living in your own world. Diseases usually affect people not only physically, but also emotionally, as contracting and living with many diseases can alter ones perspective on life, and their personality. A person with the disease right away begins to understand his or hers pains and problems that only they understand. Living a life with a disease is sometimes very difficult not only for that individual but for people that are taking care of you. These patients very often become very afraid of the disease they have and try to find a way to cure it. They visit many different clinics and hospitals to see if a cure or treatment can be found for them. Getting treated by specialists, attending different medical treatments and just following a very different everyday life can make it very difficult to understand themselves. After reading An Anthropologist on Mars, it has informed me of a different understanding of concepts such as â€Å"normality† and â€Å"handicap†. To some people having s minor disease or disorder they can be considered as handicap, but to others you can be a completely normal person. For example, having autism is so common in this era, that a lot of people would classify you as a normal individual, but many people would not and consider you handicap because you have a disease. Now that I have read many cases of Oliver Sacks, I understand that not all people are handicap, everyone is normal in their own way and to their own environment. You learn to adapt to life with different disease and disabilities. You become acquainted with people who also deal with same issues as you which make’s it a lot simpler on the patient. To your own parents their children are always considered normal. Your relatives and close people around you would always consider you a normal person even though you might have some kind of a disease; they learn to accept you the way you are. But to strangers who just meet you and notice something abnormal, you will be considered handicap and not normal. Over all, I greatly enjoyed reading Oliver Sacks cases and finding out more about diseases that I was never aware of before. It made me realize how people can have a disease and still enjoy life after all. It made me learn to appreciate people more that have a disorder or some kind of disability because they always have a special passion for life. Since, I want to be a medical professional when I am done with my studies, I found all of Oliver Sacks cases extremely educating and kept me very interested to read further into the problems that his patients were dealing with. As I am going further into my career of becoming a nurse in the near future I will definitely be more aware of special abilities that patients can have when having a disorder that they are living with for life. Life needs to go on and everyone must make the best out of what they have in life. In the near future I will definitely read more of Oliver Sacks books and the cases that he likes to present to his readers.