Sacks Eye Right

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Analysis of “Eyes Right!” Travis Cooper Eastern Washington University Analysis of Eyes Right! In this paper I will detail the story, “Eyes Right!”, in the book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, Dr. Oliver Sacks (1985). Dr. Sacks explains the story of Mrs. S who has suffered a massive stroke. I will begin my paper by giving a summary of the story, including the brain systems and functions that were affected; next I will address the impact of stroke on Mrs. S occupational performance. I will then provide affective responses from Dr. Sacks, Mrs. S, and myself; finally, I will provide a conclusion of how this story added to my learning for OT school. Story Summary and Brain Systems and Functions The story, Eyes Right!,…show more content…
S presents with hemi partial neglect, also named hemi-neglect, special neglect, hemi-inattention and neglect syndrome (LE, 2013, p.438) This is a neuropsychological deficit in which damage to the brain results in loss of attention and to awareness of one side of the body or environment. Mrs. S’s deficit is stemming from damage to the deeper and back portions of her right cerebral hemisphere (Sacks, 1985, P.42). The inability to conceptualize that she has a left side is from her neglect, neglect usually affects the left side of the body because the right parietal portion of the brain is the key or directing attention (LE, 2013, p. 438). Mrs. S is experiencing special neglect, only recognizing the right side of her plate and thinking she has been shorted with food when in reality she is just not seeing the left side of the plate. Spatial neglect is characterized by a unilateral lack of understanding relationships and representation of space. People with neglect may presents with lack of awareness of people or object in their left side. The pathology for neglect is complex and in most cases follows damage to the right cortex in the parietal lobe, the superior temporal lobe, or the area corresponding to Wernicke’s area (LE, 2013, p.…show more content…
S’s client factors, performance skills and ADL deficits together; the neurological block due to her stroke on the right side of her brain has presented Mrs. S with loss of awareness of left. Affective Responses I will address the affective responses from view of the patient Mrs. S, Dr. Oliver Sacks, and myself. Mrs. S knows she has a problem with neglect, but cannot simply apply it to her actions. She has stated in the story that she feels like “Zeno’s arrow, I never get there and it may look funny” (Sacks, 1985, P.42). She feels as if there is nothing else she can do for her problem besides spinning in a circle to the right to find objects on her left side, she knows it absurd but cannot fix it. Dr. Sacks presented Mrs. S. with a new intervention to see the left side of her body, a video feedback image. After viewing the mirror image from the video tape of the left side of her body that was once completely missing in her mind, she was in shock and bewildered. She said “take it away!” the image was too much to take in and the video therapy was not tried again. Dr. Sacks had a positive and supportive empathy in his writing and actions throughout the story of Mrs. S. Dr. Sacks wanted to help Mrs. S recognize that she still had the left side of her
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