Reply To: “The Disembodied Lady” (Year 1 Wed.)

[Anonymous]

There is no doubt that Christinas case is horrible. But the author of the text judged her situation by saying that she both succeeded and failed. I can say that I only partially agree with his statement. Getting to know a little about her illness, I can only imagine how much the girl must have been devastated. Losing proprioreceptors leads to losing control over your body. It was a huge achievement for her to learn some basic body movements and taking even partial control over her body back. In this aspect Christina won, because she could start living a decently normal life again and be almost independent. She is a hero to me, because I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to learn everything from the start. I completely agree with Oliver Sacks on that. But I can’t agree with the statement that she failed. She did her best to get back to normal. The fact that her illness unabled her to get completely well wasn’t her fault. Although I do imagine that the author wanted to say that, she just isn’t able to get back to normal (and probably that’s why he used the word “failed”). But to me she hasn’t failed at all.