The Mind's Eye

By Oliver Sacks

From the author of the #1 national bestselling Musicophilia comes a truly visionary book: an exploration of the remarkable, unpredictable ways that our brains cope with the loss of sight by finding new forms of perception to create worlds as complete and rich as the no-longer-visible world.

Following the phenomenal success of his international bestseller Musicophilia, the inimitable Oliver Sacks returns with another book on the extraordinary interaction between our brain and our senses — in this case, vision. In The Mind's Eye, Sacks examines questions ranging from the primary experiences of how we perceive depth or color or motion to the complex matter of how different individuals have varied ways of thinking and experiencing or recreating the visual world. Like The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, Sacks's new book is based primarily on individual stories — including Sacks's own experience of an ocular tumor that left him unable to perceive depth. As always, he embeds these case histories in a rich historical and scientific context. Sacks goes beyond basic vision to explore perception, hallucination and the power of visualization, as well as the ocular effects of migraine, epilepsy and other conditions. Oliver Sacks is our perfect guide to the visual world, a realm that, it turns out, is much, much more complicated than we could have imagined.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 26, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307366368

Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks was born in 1933 in London and was educated at the Queen's College, Oxford. He completed his medical training at San Francisco's Mount Zion Hospital and at UCLA before moving to New York, where he soon encountered the patients whom he would write about in his book Awakenings. Dr Sacks spent almost fifty years working as a neurologist and wrote many books, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia, and Hallucinations, about the strange neurological predicaments and conditions of his patients. The New York Times referred to him as 'the poet laureate of medicine', and over the years he received many awards, including honours from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Royal College of Physicians. In 2008, he was appointed Commander of the British Empire. His memoir, On the Move, was published shortly before his death in August 2015.

Reviews for The Mind's Eye

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Mind’s Eye by Hakan Nesser is the first in this author’s series about Swedish Chief Inspector Van Veeteren and his team and unfortunately I was rather disappointed with this book. I have been assured that the next book is much better which is a relief as I have it on my shelves. As this book won the 1993 Swedish Crime Writers Academy Prize, I am wondering whether my disconnect was because of the writer’s style or if the translation was the problem but the book felt very segmented, uneven and remote.One thing I do take away from this book is that I believe I am going to like getting to know Inspector Van Veeteren. He is grumpy, rather depressed and works intuitively much to the chagrin of his team. Personally, I would have liked to have had a little more access to his thought process as this would have connected me to the story. The actual plot felt a little familiar, but the real star of the book was Inspector Van Veeteren, and I look forward to more of his brusque manner and insensitivity.Although this is the first book in the series, it was not the first book to be translated which leads me to believe it is not considered the strongest of his books. Hopefully that is still in my future.

[johnwbeha · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the first in the Van Vleeteren series. If I had started here I am not sure that I would be continuing with the series. The set up for this book is very good and I was hooked quickly; but once Van Vleeteren enters (in chapter four) things begin to go a bit downhill. It is difficult to follow what is essentially a police procedural when the lead investigator spends so much time thinking and not telling either his colleagues or us as readers either what he is thinking or what he is talking about. So we get a denouement without really understanding how he/we got there. I have two more books in the series to hand; whether I continue beyond them remains to be seen.

[agathanaylor_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Inspector Van Veeteren investigates a alleged murder by a school teacher. He was her husband and refuses to be helpful. Story centres around the dead woman's past for clues to her murder. It was good - Inspector very likeable. Scandinavian.

[bcquinnsmom · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is actually the first installment in the series featuring Inspector Van Veeteren, set in Sweden, and it is a good one. I really love Nesser's books, having read the first three in the series so far (Mind's Eye, Borkmann's Point, The Return). In this debut (and you'll never believe it's the first of a series, it's that good), Van Veeteren takes the case of Janek Mitter, who wakes up one morning after a night of heavy drinking to find his wife Eva in the bathtub, dead. The only suspect is Mitter himself, who absolutely cannot remember a thing. Van Veeteren finds himself wondering if indeed Mitter was the culprit, especially after Mitter is found murdered in a hospital for the mentally ill, where he was imprisoned after his trial. Van Veeteren knows that the only way to get to the bottom of these crimes is to find out all he can about their past lives -- especially Eva's. This book is one more in the wonderful set of mysteries written by Nesser. His writing is so good that he will hook you in the first few pages and not let you go until the book is finished. I can very highly recommend this one to others who enjoy Scandinavian crime fiction, and to those who have read Nesser's other books. Mystery readers who want something different than the usual will also enjoy this book as well.

[idiotgirl · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Detective. Audible. Scandanavian. Not a straightforward path. A bit of back and forth before the path to the killer begins to emerge. Liked it. Pleasant.

[erica471 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent Nordic mystery. I thought that it being set in an unnamed country would drive me crazy-not so. I'm going to read the rest in the series...

[chrisconway_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Smart, snappy mystery with an appealing detective who is delightfully intuitive.

[gbelik_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This Swedish mystery starts well. The victim is dead in a locked bathroom as her husband wakes up with a hangover and no memory of the previous evening. He is the obvious suspect. But the body of the book was too police procedural for my taste. Also, I didn't feel a very strong sense of place. I'll try another by this author since he is highly praised by others before I give up.

[stuart10er_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book. Great style and even though I had figured out who did it pretty early on - I couldn't figure out how it all went together or if my guess was right because the author kept throwing curveballs out to throw me off the scent. Quite enjoyable - will definately try another in the series.

[readers_respite · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good, although not stellar, mystery novel. I've only read one other book by this popular author (a stand-alone, something set in China) and I wasn't blown away by that one either. That said, this first in the Van Veeteren series is good enough to merit continuing on with the series. Of course, I listened to the audio version narrated by Simon Vance and that probably bumped this from 3 stars up to 4 right there. ;)

[thecrow2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In the first of the Van veeteren series, our inspector hunts a killer, who murdered a woman and after the husband has been convicted for it, he kills him too... The trails leads the inspector to the past filled with secrets.....

[jcambridge_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read two of Nesser's Van Veeteren novels on a recent trip involving cross-country flights and found them to be interesting airplane reads, but not nearly as intriguing as other Scandinavian crime writers. Mind's Eye was the better of the two books, although I felt from the start that the initial suspect in the crime was a character that warranted more development.

[elleneer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Nesser deftly explores the psychology of the victims, the criminal, the detective. Stunner of an ending that I should have seen coming. Excellent. How is that one country ,Sweden, produces such good writers of this genre?!.

[audryh_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

1st in series. Woman drowned, husband has amnesiz, convicted, killed in cell.

[0andrew0 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"Van Veteran wouldn't be fooled. He sat with his bulky body crouched over the cassette recorder, looking like a threatening and malicious trough of low pressure. His face was crisscrossed by small blue veins, many of them burst, and his expression was reminiscent of a petrified bloodhound. the only thing that moved was the toothpick, which wandered slowly from one side of his mouth to the other. He could talk without moving his lips, read without moving his eyes, yawn without opening his mouth. He was much more of a mummy than a person made up of flesh and blood.But beyond doubt a very efficient police officer."This is Nesser at his most effusive. I wonder how it reads in the original Swedish. Part Nesser's genius is his economy of words. This is one of the rare instances where Nesser is liberal with adjectives. His prose is sparse and the to the point, no shiny objects or distractions. It's all about the crime and the investigation. Amazing, amazing stuff.

[zoomball · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoy the audio versions of these Scandanavian crime stories as the names and locations come to life without my struggling to imagine the pronunciations. I liked this sardonic chief inspector and will read more of the series.

[pmfloyd1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One need not read this book first if you have not read the other Inspector Van Veeteren mysteries. But Nesser does a good job profiling the inspector's personality and view of the world and view of his job and the life of the murder. A good read and interesting overall. Predictable story line, but solving the mystery is not the primary focus of this type of mystery novel - it is seeing the mystery unfold through the eyes of the inspector. Paul Floyd

[cathyskye · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First Line: He woke up and was unable to remember his name.Nineteen times out of twenty, Inspector Van Veeteren knows when he's looking the perpetrator of a crime in the eye. There are countless tiny "tells" that alert him to a person's innocence or his guilt. When teacher Janek Mitter is sent to prison for the murder of his wife, Eva Ringmar, it turns out that this case was number twenty. When Mitter's memory begins to return, he is murdered before he can reveal the identity of the actual killer. Van Veeteren has to set the record straight, clear Mitter's name, and send the right person to prison.Van Veeteren is a character I could get my teeth into and feel some empathy for, since endless overcast weather and darkness tend to depress both of us. Nesser's description brought him to life: "He sat with his bulky body crouched over the cassette recorder, looking like a threatening and malicious trough of low pressure. His face was criss-crossed by small blue veins, many of them burst, and his expression was reminiscent of a petrified bloodhound. The only thing that moved was the toothpick, which wandered slowly from one side of his mouth to the other. He could talk without moving his lips, read without moving his eyes, yawn without opening his mouth. He was much more of a mummy than a person made up of flesh and blood."The plot moves quickly as he tries to find the killer. Although I did find the identity of the murderer to be a bit of a letdown and the ending a little rushed, the bare bones of an excellent mystery series were there to be seen, and I look forward to reading more of Inspector Van Veeteren's adventures.

[annbury_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The first in the Inspector Van Veeteren stories to be translated into English, and well worth waiting for. The story is engrossing -- a man wakes up with a horrible hangover, stumbles to the bathroom, and finds his wife dead in the bath. He is found guilty and imprisoned in a mental institution; Van Veeteren isn't altogether happy with this outcome, but sits back lets the law do its work. Then, however, the convicted killer himself is murdered, and it's time for a full scale investigation of what actually happened. Van Veeteren is an engaging detective with an ironic turn of mind that makes this a "funnier" series than most of Scandi Noir (though "funny" isn't the right word: amusing perhaps.) The plotting is careful and the story engrossing. If that weren't enough, one thing will keep me coming back -- where is all this happening? Nesser is a Swedish writer; Van Veeteren sounds Dutch: street names and such could be anywhere in Northern Europe. The country, however, remains a secret/

[edwinbcn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Although I have collected several volumes of works by Oliver Sacks, I had so far only read one, Awakenings. That book was extremely powerful, and I still often think about it.It seems that will not be the case with The mind's eye. Sacks is clearly a very good writer, but these case histories gave the the feeling he was rattling off, pulling stories from stock. Some stories are horrible, especially as they affected the author personally, but perhaps not odd, I must say I was not touched. Just another case story, I suppose, the reader's nerves are numbed.I was irritated by the multiple and many references to other cases in other books published by Sacks, as if this book was one way to promote all the other books.I still have three books on my shelves, but grown aware that I should be more careful, and less impulsive when buying books. With these kinds of books there may be a point of saturation.

[c_why · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent & fascinating as Sacks' books always are. This focuses on the neurology of vision and includes some harsh challenges that Dr. Sacks himself faces. I took this book out in hopes of finding information on prosopagnosia (face blindness) as I am having increasing trouble recognizing people's faces until I've spent a fair bit of time with them. Not too many solutions really - just FOCUS more I suspect (or bring along a camera).

[mahallett · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

good stories about vision and eyes.

[wester_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked this book. Oliver Sacks does what he does best: taking weird affections of the perceptual apparatus and connecting this with the people that have them, so that the end result is not medical (although it teaches medical things) and certainly no "freak show", but a series of portraits. I did think the book was a bit unbalanced - first a series of medical portraits like The Man Who Took his Wife for a Hat, then a personal and philosophical part more like A Leg to Stand on. All the same, well worth reading.

[switchknitter · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love Oliver Sacks' work, and The Mind's Eye is no exception. This was a very personal book for Sacks. Not only did he do his usual writing about patients, but he also wrote a lot about his experiences with losing sight in his right eye. He included portions of his journal entries written during the process of being diagnosed, treated, and his feelings on his sight failing. It's very well-written, and I wanted to give him a big hug by the end of the book. He's a brilliant man, and I hate to hear that he suffered. Definitely worth reading.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

nonfiction; neurological hypothesis. Anecdotes of various folks' symptoms as pertaining to their brains and their sight (everybody's brain is different).

[nodosaurus · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is mostly a study of three cases of vision disorders. The book explores the effects of the degenerative disease in terms of brain function and vision loss, and the coping strategies of the people suffering the loss. One of the studies follows a person who actually feels he benefited from his vision loss. I had hoped it would explore the neuroscience side of the issues more. The details are still interesting, although the studies seemed to get long and repetitive. The final chapter of the book does discuss the neuroscience more. Generally, I didn't think this book was as good as some of his previous works. This isn't one I'd recommend to the average person.

[katiebrugger-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I expected more science, more about how the brain works. I have heard so much about Oliver Sacks over the years but this was the first of his books I read. I have to admit I was disappointed.

But then I realized, of course, this is why he’s so popular, there’s only stories about strange things that happen to people, and somewhat inspiring stories of how they mostly triumph over adversity. It made me think of old circus sideshows, where we “normal” folk go and gaze with horror and wonder at the freaks of nature and feel better about ourselves.

[labfs39 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm sorry to say that I was unable to finish this one, which is unusual for me. I was listening on audio, and the reader's voice was a little grating to my ear, but the true problem was that I found The Mind's Eye to be a near retelling of many of Sack's earlier books. Although the patients may have been different, the cases were very familiar to fans of Sack's works. In addition, the author actually referred back to earlier cases such as "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat", "Awakenings", and others with monotonous frequency. I am impressed with the candor with which the author discusses his own visual and audio problems, and I enjoy learning more about the brain and how it functions. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to hold my attention and rather than continue to drift and rewind, I decided to move on.

[cwlongshot · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Oliver Sacks is always good, but sometimes the medical details can get tedious. I learned a lot about visual perception from this book. The most interesting part was when Dr. Sacks discussed his own battle with vision loss. He revisits many of the patients from earlier books as they relate to this topic. I much preferred his earlier book Musicophilia, but it may have been because of the more interesting topic. I listened to the audiobook, and Dr. Sacks only reads portions of the book because of his difficulty in reading, which is a shame because I like hearing him read.

[cajela_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm a huge fan of Oliver Sacks, and his latest book is no disappointment. This is his usual style - a collection of essays and case studies on brain function, connected by a common thread. In this case the thread is vision. Sacks' compassion shines through as strongly as his intellect. As always, the case studies are fascinating, and cast much light on how the mind functions and malfunctions. It's fascinating to read how perceptions are so very much more complex than you'd think, and how mediated by the mind. It's possible to lose the ability to read music while still able to read text - how amazing and strange!This book is more personal than usual, as Sacks has recently had melanoma of the eye, and lost not only his stereo vision but some aspects of his perception - including awareness of the very existence of a world of to one side. He also adds a personal touch in describing his own prosopagnosia, or face-blindness.