The mind's eye

How does the brain perceive and interpret information from the eye? And what happens when the process is disrupted? In The Mind’s Eye, Oliver Sacks tells the stories of people who are able to navigate the world and communicate with others despite losing what many of us consider indispensable senses and abilities: the capacity to recognize faces, the sense of three-dimensional space, the ability to read, the sense of sight.

For all of these people, the challenge is to adapt to a radically new way of being in the world – and The Mind’s Eye is testament to the myriad ways that we, as humans, are capable of rising to this challenge. ‘Oliver Sacks is a perfect antidote to the anaesthetic of familiarity.

His writing turns brains and minds transparent’ – Observer