Second Sight Book

I have read a number of memoirs about blindness or going blind, but this is the first I've read by someone who regained their sight. Robert Hine became blind due to uveitis, a result of childhood rheumatoid arthritis. He was blind for fifteen years, at which point he required emergency surgery for a complication of the cataracts he'd developed. The surgery had the unexpected benefit of returning his sight.

Hine covers the broad spectrum of sensation and emotion that resulted. He describes how faces and bodies initially looked grotesque--missing some parts or wildly out of proportion. He found it harder to concentrate with the distraction of sight, and he had an awakening of vanity that didn't exist when he was blind. During the first weeks of seeing, everything--literally everything--was beautiful; later, he perceived more diversity, from shabby to gaudy.

Although most of us would imagine that regaining lost sight would be wholly positive, the author shares some downsides. Hine expressed one of his earliest worries: "I had lost my blind self, but what would take its place?" Although he didn't experience too much trouble with depression himself after recovering his sight, he discusses how difficult it has been for others to cope with the constant stream of "superabundant impressions" and that withdrawal and depression are common results.

Having lived in both the blind and sighted worlds, Hine knows that some things are lost when sight is regained. For one, the sighted truly underestimate the joy of touch. Although he was happy to have his sight restored, Hines believes that blindness should ideally be viewed as a redefined form of wholeness rather than a loss.

[The copyright on this book is 1993 and Mr. Hine was born in 1921, so it might not be as satisfying a read for someone looking for a more current account of sight restoration.]