The second case study is Miss R., and here we learn first hand the horror of what it might be like to be so trapped in a body that no longer cooperates. Yet her mechanism of defense was of the most extreme apathy yet she never lost some innate sense of happiness when, after the L-Dopa, she ‘awakened’ and was able to deal with life again.

The end of her story is so literary, that it almost feels like fiction.

The first study is Mrs. B and Sacks’ decision to introduce her to us first is inspired because, as he puts it, though she was never a star patient, she is in many ways the best of us and for anyone who has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, the best, plausible hope to be optimistic for.

In many ways reading this study is like stepping back in time to the 19th century when dr’s cared for the person, not just the body