Bloomsbury Home
Description
Imagine how it would feel to one day wake up and find your vision descending swiftly into darkness.
Your fingertips are turning numb, and, as the world closes in around you, you realise there is nothing you can do to stop it.
This is what happened to Vanessa Potter. In the space of 72 hours, Vanessa went from juggling a high-flying career as a producer and caring for her two small children to being completely blind, unable to walk, and with her sense of touch completely gone.
Over the course of the next six months, Vanessa slowly began to recover. Opening her eyes onto a black-and-white world with mutating shapes and colours that crackled and fizzled, she encountered a visual landscape that was completely unrecognisable. As colour reappeared, Vanessa experienced a range of bizarre phenomena as her confused brain tried to make sense of the world around her, and she found herself touching and talking to inanimate objects in order to stimulate her vision – all part of her brain's mechanism for coping with the trauma of sensory loss.
Going blind led Vanessa to turn science sleuth, reinventing herself as Patient H69 to uncover the reality behind her unique condition. With the help of a team of psychologists and neuroscientists, we follow her story as she learns the science of herself, making discoveries that will positively change the course of her life.
Vanessa's account is raw and candid, but ultimately upbeat. It shows how this remarkable woman opened doors by transforming her terrifying experience into an inspirational and scientifically fascinating endeavour.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Story of Patient H69
Part 1: DIARY OF EVENTS
Chapter 1: MMXII
Chapter 2: Snake Bite
Chapter 3: The Pillow
Chapter 4: D-Day
Chapter 5: Home
Chapter 6: Mowbray Road
Chapter 7: Painting Project 1
Part 2: DIARY OF THE SCIENCE
Chapter 8: The Science of My Sight
Chapter 9: The Art of Seeing
Chapter 10: Synaesthesia
Chapter 11: Memory
Chapter 12: Making No Sense
Chapter 13: Cambridge Science Festival 2015
Chapter 14: 20/200
Chapter 15: Time Traveller
Appendix I: The beach: A visualised sanctuary
Appendix II: Visualisation guide
Further Reading
Acknowledgements
Index
Product details
| Published | May 04 2017 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 272 |
| ISBN | 9781472936134 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Sigma |
| Illustrations | 8-page colour plate section; black and white diagrams |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Reviews
ONLINE RESOURCES
Bloomsbury Collections
This book is available on Bloomsbury Collections where your library has access.
Related Titles
