A Contemporary Classics hardcover edition of Dr. Sacks's most extraordinary book, in which the "poet laureate of medicine" ( The New York Times ) recounts fascinating case histories of patients with neurological disorders. An influential landmark in the tradition of writing about the body and the brain, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with perceptual and intellectual disorders: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; whose limbs seem alien to them; who lack some skills yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents. In Dr. Sacks's splendid and sympathetic telling, his patients are deeply human and his tales are studies of struggles against incredible adversity. A great healer, Sacks never loses sight of medicine's ultimate responsibility: "the suffering, afflicted, fighting human subject." Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Contemporary Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.

"One of the greatest challenges patients and their families face is how to evaluate and act on medical advice. Swept up in the rush of events, anxious about the prognosis, facing a blur of technical jargon, fatigued from worry or pain, people who are ill are easily overwhelmed by treatment choices. Told in eight gripping clinical dramas, [this book] reveals the forces at play in making critical medical decisions. Dr. Jerome Groopman illuminates the world of medicine, where knowledge is imperfect, no therapy is without risks, and the outcome is never fully predictable. It portrays moments of astute diagnosis and misguided perception, of lifesaving triumphs and shattering failures. These real-life lessons prepare us to traverse the uncertain terrain of illness, and enable us to balance intuition and information, and thereby make the best possible decisions about our health and future.

Integrating theory with realistic case studies, this book examines the practical application of moral theory in clinical decision-making. With forty composite cases based on actual clinical experiences, the author describes key moral problems raised by modern medicine. He then demonstrates how these dilemmas can be resolved using a problem-solving framework termed pluralistic casuistry. This approach is pluralistic in that it accepts the relevance of many different moral grounds, drawn from different traditional moral theories, each of which may seem self-contained and hence in conflict with other claims. Consequently, the author stresses the need to achieve a synthesis of these traditional moral theories, rather than treating them as competitors. His approach is casuistrical in the sense that it considers the important differences between the cases at issue and applies the different moral appeals in different ways. The richly detailed case studies will challenge readers, clarify the ethical issues involved, and indicate how theory and practice can be integrated. Containing a multiplicity of factors faced in clinical crises, they are ideal for group discussions concerning the ways in which theory relates to actual life-or-death situations.

Divided Staffs, Divided Selves offers a case-centered approach to the teaching of health care ethics to a wide range of students and clinicians. The book provides both clinical case material and a method for engaging in a dialogue regarding difficult decisions in the mental health care field that have potentially tragic choices. The essays that introduce the volume place the ethical problems of treating mentally ill people in the context of the health care ethics movement and traditions of ethical decision making. The individual cases are real, derived from actual clinical and consultative experiences.

The first book ever to describe real life cases of murder, and purported murder, using insulin as a weapon. Covers cases from the USA, UK, Europe, Japan and New Zealand, including the well known Claus von Bulow case, the first criminal trial to be broadcast in its entirety on US TV (later the subject of a Hollywood movie, Reversal of Fortune). Written by Vincent Marks, coauthor of the critically acclaimed book Panic Nation: Exposing the Lies We're Told About Food and Health (John Blake Publishing) and a world authority on insulin, and Caroline Richmond, a medical journalist and writer, this gripping account is intended for doctors and laypeople alike, especially those with an interest in forensic medicine or true life crime.