From: Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net>
Subject: Re: [RUS] USA media meltdown (e.g. "It's Official: Hillary Clinton Is Running Against Vladimir Putin")
I read late neurologist Oliver Sacks' book, "The man who mistook his wife for a hat" about 20-25 years ago. In one story, as I vaguely recall, he described showing a political speech to a room full of 'aphasics', people who can't understand the meaning of actual speech, but who can 'read' issues of honesty (or lack of same) very well. They all laughed http://www.aphasia.org/stories/happy-birthday-oliver-sacks/
"Maybe the best place to start is an excerpt from The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, one of the most beloved books from Oliver Sacks, a collection of clinical tales about patients with neurological disorders. The book includes accounts about aphasia as well. One of those tales relates the story of patients with the severest receptive or global aphasia who had gathered to watch the President speaking. It begins like this: What was going on? A roar of laughter from the aphasia ward, just as the President’s speech was coming on, and they had all been so eager to hear the President speaking…
Dr. Sacks has had many encouraging words for people with aphasia, even those who have had the hardest of luck.
I think that even in the most severely affected patients, something can be done. If not by way of recovering their language, by way of making life more tolerable and more fun."
[end of partial quote]
Jim Bell