Oliver Sacks, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, was apparently a doctor who mistook his patients for fictional characters. The celebrated neurologist who taught generations to see the poetry in damaged brains invented a lot of that poetry himself.

According to a devastating new investigation by Rachel Aviv in The New Yorker, many of the vivid details in Sacks's beloved case studies were fabrications — embellishments designed to make better stories.

The man who mistook his wife for a hat? The autistic twins who could spontaneously generate multi-digit prime numbers? The paralyzed patient who tapped out allusions to Rilke? Made up, or at least heavily enhanced. In his own journals, Sacks admitted he had given his patients "powers (starting with powers of speech) which they

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