#12 in Psychology
An Anthropologist on Mars
- 351
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“An Anthropologist on Mars” is a humane, absorbing collection of seven case histories by the neurologist Oliver Sacks. He follows people with conditions such as autism and Tourette’s syndrome into their everyday lives, away from the clinic, and each essay has room to go deep. Some readers find the neurology demanding in places yet are struck by the dignity he gives each person. Anyone curious about how differently minds can work will find much here.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales is a 1995 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks consisting of seven medical case histories of individuals with neurological conditions such as autism and Tourette syndrome. An Anthropologist on Mars follows up on many of the themes Sacks explored in his 1985 book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, but here the essays are significantly longer and Sacks has more of an opportunity to discuss each subject with more depth and to explore historical case studies of patients with similar symptoms. In addition, Sacks studies his patients outside the hospital, often traveling considerable distances to interact with his subjects in their own environments. Sacks concludes that "defects, disorders, [and] diseases... can play a paradoxical role, by bringing out latent powers, developments, evolutions, forms of life that might never be seen, or even be imaginable, in their absence".
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.5 across 50 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 25% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Psychology average of 7.9. That is how 8.1 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.9 | 7 | 14% |
| Hardcover | 8.4 | 43 | 86% |
Frequently asked
How long is An Anthropologist on Mars?
It has 351 pages — shorter than 55% of the ranked books in Psychology.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Psychology — with scores between 7.8 and 8.1, closest to this book.
