To See and Not See by Oliver Sacks Analysis Essay Sample

"To See and Not See" written by Oliver Sacks, tells the story of a blind man who had been blind for 45 years, and surgeons were able to perform a remarkable surgery on him to restore his sight. As this may sound like exciting, marvelous news, it wasn’t necessarily the happy ending the man was looking for. The story follows a man named Virgil, a blind man who had gone 45 years without the ability to see. He could still perceive lightness and darkness, as well as the source of light and the silhouette of a hand moving in front of his eyes, which shows us that his retinas were not fully destroyed. In his special case there was a surgery available that could leave him with the gift of sight- or so they thought. His fiancé pushed him to undergo the surgery as there was nothing to lose. The surgery was a success, Virgil was finally able to see for the first time in over 40 years! Little did they know, it wasn’t that simple, and Virgil's struggles were only beginning.  

Once Virgil’s sight was restored, he began to have trouble processing exactly what he was seeing. Initially, he could see light and color. He was able to navigate through life with his new sense of sight, but he was unable to perceive the world in the same way that we do. Although he could technically see the world, it ultimately meant nothing to him as he had no visual memories to make connections as to what he was seeing. When he tried to read the newspaper, he was unable to distinguish words that were less than a third of an inch high. His vision was only about 20/80, but he could easily recognize capital letters, this was due to his childhood when he learned the Alphabet through touching and feeling letter blocks. Prior to his surgery, Virgil told the time by feeling the placement of the hands on his watch, after the surgery, he was able to read a clock quite easily due to the instant “cross modal” transfer he experienced. (Sacks, 1993) He had difficulty identifying objects and faces. As researchers observed Virgil, they noticed he could easily distinguish details of what he was seeing but was unable to put them together in his mind to form an object or person. This shows that Virgil had damage to his ventral stream from the surgery since he couldn’t make conscious identification of objects and people.  (Sarkar, 2021) For example, he could see edges, movements, colors, and angles but he couldn’t mentally arrange them to perceive a singular object. This shows us that even the most apparent connections had to be learned. His retina and optic nerve were transmitting impulses, but his brain couldn't understand them. This condition is what neurologists call agnostic. (Sacks, 1993) Simple structures that appear normal to the human eye such as trees and skyscrapers, seemed to perplex Virgil. The world he had grown into, and was comfortable in, was suddenly flipped upside down. Prior to his surgery, Virgil most likely suffered from Cortical Blindness which means he had damage to both hemispheres of his primary visual cortex. People who suffer from “Blindsight” or Cortical Blindness respond to visual stimuli that they do not consciously see due to lesions in their primary visual cortex. (Sarkar, 2021) Since Virgil was able to perceive light and color, his visual area V4 was intact. (De Moraes, 2013) Oliver Sacks characterizes Virgil's predicament as the distinction between seeing and comprehending. His vision deteriorated again over time, as a result of his cerebral cortex getting overloaded with the new visual language it was attempting to construct and shutting down as a result. (Sacks, 1993) 

Essentially, Virgil had to completely forget one way of being and perceiving in order to attempt to construct a new way of doing so – without the benefit of the plasticity of the child’s brain. Even the most obvious of connections must be learned, the world as he knew it was completely changed forever. During the process of relearning his own perceptual world he spent hours a day doing “systematic exploration” where he would pick up various objects around his house and observe them in depth. He would pick them up, feel them and attempt to identify them simply by sight. (Sacks, 1993) Overwhelming stimulation, or stimulation beyond a threshold point, can cause the brain to shut down as a defense mechanism due to stimuli overload. Virgil was still so frail that when he was overwhelmed by external stimulation, he would go into and out of not only physical but entire Anton-like psychosis blindness. (Sacks, 1993) Many patients like Virgil, who initially viewed sight as a gift, soon realized that seeing wasn’t a gift at all- instead it was a curse. The stress of re-learning the world becomes too much for some people and many patients become overwhelmed with depression and eventually pass away soon after. (Sacks, 1993) Luckily for Virgil, he received the gift of blindness after all. There can be a lot of strength in not having all five senses, especially if you've grown up without one of them fully functioning. The brain and body are extremely efficient at coping with what they are given, so increasing stimuli, such as undergoing surgery to attempt to fix the problem is not always the greatest option for the person with the disability.