In the preface to An Anthropologist on Mars, Oliver Sacks writes that he “is sometimes moved to wonder whether it may not be necessary to redefine the very concepts of “health” and “disease,“ to see these in terms of the ability of the organism to create a new organization and order, one that fits its special, altered disposition and needs rather than in terms of a rigidly defined “norm.”

A first year seminar class at Case Western Reserve University title, “Is the Mind What the Brain Does?” studied Sacks’s work through a project which is presented in this Scalar book.  The class was divided into 6 groups of 3 and asked to consider themselves as working alongside Dr. Sacks to explore concepts of (psychological) health and disease on several levels.  Each group was assigned a specific chapter from An Anthropologist on Mars and asked to conduct a study of the disorder and analysis of the case study presented.  The following chapters in this Scalar book present their insights and creative approaches to these important issues.