Essay on Oliver Sacks

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The Connections of Blindness and the Brain

The brain and the mind are one and cannot be separated, while the brain is a physical thing the mind on the other hand is considered to be mental. The brain is constructed of nerve cells, blood vessels, and etc., whereas the mind is shapeless. The brain is an important organ in the human body since it controls all the functions and activities. The mind on the other hand is the center of the nervous system; it coordinates the movements and thoughts. The Mind lets an individual understand things but the brain is in charge of sending the signals to the mind. Oliver Sacks in “The Mind’s Eye” uses the case studies of John Hull, Zoltan Torey, and Lusseyran to show that the mind and brain both …show more content…
Similar to Hull, Torey trained his mind and brain to both run each other even without the ability of vision by learning to compensate his senses. Torey wrote in his book that unlike Hull he had trained his mind to develop his visual imagery even though he was advised to switch from a visual to an auditory mode of adjustment. Since he was a psychologist Torey understood that if he kept imagery in practice his brain would register it. This means that Torey was able to “construct an imagined visual world that seemed almost as real and intense to him as the perceptual one he had lost—and, indeed, sometimes more real, more intense, a sort of controlled dream or hallucination” (Sacks 306). This shows just how closely the mind and brain must have worked together to create almost a dream like thought in his mind. This world that Torey was able to accurately construct in his mind is further shown in his story in which he is able to change his gutters on the roof of his house completely by himself. Sacks says that he was able to complete such a task due to the fact that he was able to grasp visual thought into his mind and simulate the actions of the brain. This training of the mind that Torey practices was done by going against the norm of “rebuilding his representation of the world on the
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