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The Man who mistook his wife for a hat – Oliver Sacks

Not only did Mr P increasingly fail to see faces, but he saw faces when there were no faces to see:  genially, Magoo like, when in the street, he might pat the heads of water hydrants and parking meters, taking these to be the heads of children; he would amiably address carved knobs on furniture and be astounded when they did not reply.  At first these odd mistakes were laughed off as jokes, not least by Mr P himself.  Had he not always had a quirky sense of humour, and been given to Zen like paradoxes and jests?  His musical powers were as dazzling as ever; he did not feel ill – he had never been better; and the mistakes were so ludicrous – and so ingenious – that they could hardly be serious or betoken anything serious…..

Dr P consulted an opthalmologist….’There’s nothing the matter with your eyes’ the doctor concluded ‘but there is trouble with the visual parts of the brain