Chapter 5: The Illusions of Parkinsonism and Chapter 6: Altered States Summary and Analysis

In Chapter 5, Sacks discusses Parkinson's disease, originally discussed in 1817 as a solely physical disease. Sacks notes the hallucinations and perceptual disorders involved were rarely discussed until the 1980s. Sacks, in his treatment of encephalitis patients, notes that L-dopa treated patients of all types, including Parkinson patients, are often afflicted with hallucinations. Some are geometric, while others are complex. Unfortunately, many also develop paranoid hallucinations, such as people following them, or people in their homes, watching them. Lowering the dose of medications sometimes reduces these hallucinations. One woman, Agnes, sees a host of hallucinations every day, due to Parkinson's, and has learned to adjust. For Agnes, they help her pass the time as she is immobile because of the disease. Others have "companion" hallucinations, or those...