Oliver Sacks, “Island of the Colorblind”, 1997, PART TWO (II) was the topic of an earlier blog post.
Here I present: Oliver Sacks, “Hallucinations”, 2012.
INTRODUCTION.
Neurologist Oliver Sacks is famous for case history writing. Here hallucinations, such as Charles Bonnet Syndrome (CBS) are presented. The book consists of sixteen (16) chapters listed BELOW .
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
1. Introduction.
2. Silent Multitudes: Charles Bonnet Syndrome.
3. The Prisoner’s Cinema: Sensory Deprivation.
4. A Few Nanograms of Wine: Hallucinatory Smells.
5. Hearing Things.
6. The Illusions of Parkinsonism.
7. Altered States.
8. Patterns: Visual Migraines.
9. The “Sacred” Disease.
10. Bisected: Hallucinations in the Half-Field.
11. Delirious.
12. On the Threshold of Sleep.
13. Narcolepsy and Night Hags.
14. The Haunted Mind.
15. Doppelgängers: Hallucinating Oneself.
16. Phantoms, Shadows, and Sensory Ghosts.
Here I presented: Oliver Sacks, “Hallucinations”, 2012 which a national bestseller, and awards winner book.
COMMENTS.
The first chapter after the “Introduction” is on Charles Bonnet Syndrome (CBS). Swiss doctor Charles Bonnet (1720–1792) first described the phenomenon of complex visual hallucinations in visually impaired, but otherwise psychologically normal patients in the 1760s. He first observed the phenomenon in his grandfather, who was visually impaired (eye shown ABOVE) due to cataracts.
These hallucinations are usually of vivid, formed, and realistic objects or people and tend to recur. In the Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS), patients are typically aware that these images are not real, although they may find them disturbing. However, the hallucinations may also fit logically into the visual scene and thus be indiscernible from real objects
