The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat Lesson Plan

Analyze Sacks's explanation of why he's felt uncomfortable with working with mentally handicapped individuals in the past. Are there any aspects of his explanation that particularly make you feel uncomfortable, or with which you relate?

Throughout the introduction to this section, Sacks uses numerous terms to refer to these patients—"retardates," "defective," "simpleton," and comparing them to children and "savages"—that many students may find off-putting or even alarming. Indeed, Sacks himself admits that when he first considered working with the mentally handicapped, he thought it would be a miserable experience because he worried that these patients, lacking developed...