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Oliver Wolf Sacks, (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British
neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...
, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in Britain, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from
The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...
, before moving to the United States, where he spent most of his career. He interned at Mount Zion Hospital in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
and completed his residency in neurology and neuropathology at the
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...
(UCLA). After a fellowship at the
Albert Einstein College of Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a research-intensive medical school located in the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein operates as an independent degree-granting institution as part of t ...
, he served as neurologist at Beth Abraham Hospital's chronic-care facility in
the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...
, where he worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness
encephalitis lethargica Encephalitis lethargica is an atypical form of encephalitis. Also known as "sleeping sickness" or "sleepy sickness" (distinct from tsetse fly-transmitted sleeping sickness), it was first described in 1917 by neurologist Constantin von Econom ...
, who had been unable to move on their own for decades. His treatment of those patients became the basis of his 1973 book '' Awakenings'', which was adapted into an
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
-nominated
feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
in 1990, starring
Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...
and
Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...
. His numerous other best-selling books were mostly collections of
case studies A case study is an in-depth, detailed examination of a particular case (or cases) within a real-world context. For example, case studies in medicine may focus on an individual patient or ailment; case studies in business might cover a particular f ...
of people, including himself, with
neurological disorder A neurological disorder is any disorder of the nervous system. Structural, biochemical or electrical abnormalities in the brain, spinal cord or other nerves can result in a range of symptoms. Examples of symptoms include paralysis, muscle weakn ...
s. He also published hundreds of articles (both peer-reviewed scientific articles and articles for a general audience), not only about neurological disorders but also insightful book reviews and articles about the history of science, natural history, and nature. His writings have been featured in a wide range of media; ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called him a "
poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...
of contemporary medicine", and "one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century". His books include a wealth of narrative detail about his experiences with his patients and his own experiences, and how patients and he coped with their conditions, often illuminating how the normal brain deals with perception, memory, and individuality. In addition to the information content, the beauty of his writing style is especially treasured by many of his readers. He and his book '' Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain'' were the subject of " Musical Minds", an episode of the PBS series ''
Nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramat ...
''. Sacks was appointed a CBE for services to medicine in the 2008 Birthday Honours."Oliver Sacks dies in New York aged 82"
.
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...
. Retrieved 30 August 2015
He once stated that the
brain A brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as Visual perception, vision. I ...
is the "most incredible thing in the universe". He became widely known for writing best-selling case histories about both his patients' and his own disorders and unusual experiences, with some of his books adapted for plays by major playwrights, feature films, animated short films, opera, dance, fine art, and musical works in the classical genre.


Early life and education

Oliver Wolf Sacks was born in
Cricklewood Cricklewood is an area of London, England, which spans the boundaries of three London boroughs: Barnet to the east, Brent to the west and Camden to the south-east. The Crown pub, now the Clayton Crown Hotel, is a local landmark and lies north ...
, London, England, the youngest of four children born to Jewish parents: Samuel Sacks, a
Lithuanian Jewish Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks () are Jews with roots in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, as well as adjacent ...
doctor (died June 1990), and Muriel Elsie Landau, one of the first female surgeons in England (died 1972), who was one of 18 siblings. Sacks had an extremely large extended family of eminent scientists, physicians and other notable individuals, including the director and writer
Jonathan Lynn Jonathan Lynn (born 3 April 1943) is an English stage and film director, producer, writer, and actor. He is known for directing the comedy films such as '' Clue'', '' Nuns on the Run'', ''My Cousin Vinny'', and '' The Whole Nine Yards''. He als ...
and first cousins, the Israeli statesman
Abba Eban Abba Solomon Meir Eban (; he, אבא אבן ; born Aubrey Solomon Meir Eban; 2 February 1915 – 17 November 2002) was an Israeli diplomat and politician, and a scholar of the Arabic and Hebrew languages. During his career, he served as For ...
the Nobel Laureate
Robert Aumann Robert John Aumann (Hebrew name: , Yisrael Aumann; born June 8, 1930) is an Israeli-American mathematician, and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. He is a professor at the Center for the Study of Rationality in the Hebrew ...
and the former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom
Jonathan Sacks, Baron Sacks Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks ( he, יונתן הנרי זקס, translit=Yona'tan Henry Zaks; 8 March 19487 November 2020) was an English Orthodox rabbi, philosopher, theologian, and author. Sacks served as the Chief Rabbi of the United ...
. In December 1939, when Sacks was six years old, he and his older brother Michael were evacuated from London to escape
the Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...
, and sent to a
boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of " room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exte ...
in the
English Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the ...
where he remained until 1943. Unknown to his family, at the school, he and his brother Michael "...subsisted on meager rations of turnips and beetroot and suffered cruel punishments at the hands of a sadistic headmaster."Nadine Epstein, (2008)
Uncle Xenon: The Element of Oliver Sacks
''Moment Magazine''
This is detailed in his first autobiography, '' Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood''. Beginning with his return home at the age of 10, under his Uncle Dave's tutelage, he became an intensely focused amateur chemist. Later, he attended St Paul's School in London, where he developed lifelong friendships with Jonathan Miller and Eric Korn.


Study of medicine

During adolescence he shared an intense interest in biology with these friends, and later came to share his parents' enthusiasm for medicine. He chose to study medicine at university and entered
The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...
in 1951. The first half studying medicine at Oxford is pre-clinical, and he graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
(BA) degree in physiology and biology in 1956. Although not required, Sacks chose to stay on for an additional year to undertake research after he had taken a course by Hugh Macdonald Sinclair. Sacks recalls, "I had been seduced by a series of vivid lectures on the history of medicine and nutrition, given by Sinclair... it was the history of physiology, the ideas and personalities of physiologists, which came to life." Sacks then became involved with the school's Laboratory of Human Nutrition under Sinclair. Sacks focused his research on Jamaica ginger, a toxic and commonly abused drug known to cause irreversible nerve damage. After devoting months to research he was disappointed by the lack of help and guidance he received from Sinclair. Sacks wrote up an account of his research findings but stopped working on the subject. As a result he became depressed: "I felt myself sinking into a state of quiet but in some ways agitated despair." His tutor at Queen's and his parents, seeing his lowered emotional state, suggested he extricate himself from academic studies for a period. His parents then suggested he spend the summer of 1955 living on Israeli
kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
Ein HaShofet, where the physical labour would help him. Sacks would later describe his experience on the kibbutz as an "anodyne to the lonely, torturing months in Sinclair's lab". He said he lost from his previously overweight body as a result of the healthy, hard physical labour he performed there. He spent time travelling around the country with time spent scuba diving at the
Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...
port city of
Eilat Eilat ( , ; he, אֵילַת ; ar, إِيلَات, Īlāt) is Israel's southernmost city, with a population of , a busy port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on what is known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat and in Jorda ...
, and began to reconsider his future: "I wondered again, as I had wondered when I first went to Oxford, whether I really wanted to become a doctor. I had become very interested in neurophysiology, but I also loved marine biology;... But I was 'cured' now; it was time to return to medicine, to start clinical work, seeing patients in London." In 1956, Sacks began his clinical study of medicine at the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
and
Middlesex Hospital Medical School Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clos ...
. For the next two-and-a-half years, he took courses in medicine, surgery, orthopaedics, paediatrics, neurology, psychiatry, dermatology, infectious diseases, obstetrics, and various other disciplines. During his years as a student, he helped home-deliver a number of babies. In 1958, he graduated with
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United K ...
(BM BCh) degrees, and, as per tradition, his BA was promoted to a
Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
(MA Oxon) degree. Having completed his medical degree, Sacks began his
pre-registration house officer Pre-registration house officer (PRHO), often known as a houseman or house officer, is a former official term for a grade of junior doctor that was, until 2005, the only job open to medical graduates in the United Kingdom who had just passed th ...
rotations at
Middlesex Hospital Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clos ...
the following month. "My eldest brother, Marcus, had trained at the Middlesex," he said, "and now I was following his footsteps." Before beginning his house officer post, he said he first wanted some hospital experience to gain more confidence, and took a job at a hospital in
St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman ...
where his mother had worked as an emergency surgeon during the war. He then did his first six-month post in Middlesex Hospital's medical unit, followed by another six months in its neurological unit. He completed his pre-registration year in June 1960 but was uncertain about his future.


Beginning life in North America

Sacks left Britain and flew to Montreal, Canada, on 9 July 1960, his 27th birthday. He visited the
Montreal Neurological Institute The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC; french: Centre universitaire de santé McGill) is one of two major healthcare networks in the city of Montreal, Quebec. It is affiliated with McGill University and is one of the largest medical complex in ...
and the
Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...
(RCAF), telling them that he wanted to be a pilot. After some interviews and checking his background, they told him he would be best in medical research. But as he kept making mistakes, like losing data of several months of research, destroying irreplaceable slides and losing biological samples, his supervisors had second thoughts about him. Dr. Taylor, the head medical officer, told him, "You are clearly talented and we would love to have you, but I am not sure about your motives for joining." He was told to travel for a few months and reconsider. He used the next three months to travel across Canada and deep into the Canadian Rockies, which he described in his personal journal, later published as ''Canada: Pause, 1960''. He then made his way to the United States, completing an
internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...
at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco and a
residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgrad ...
neurology and neuropathology at
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...
. While there, Sacks became a lifelong close friend of poet Thom Gunn, saying he loved his wild imagination, his strict control, and perfect poetic form. During much of his time at UCLA, he lived in a rented house in
Topanga Canyon Topanga () (Tongva: ''Topaa'nga'') is a census-designated place (CDP) in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located in the Santa Monica Mountains, the community exists in Topanga Canyon and the surrounding hills. The narrow s ...
and experimented with various recreational drugs. He described some of his experiences in a 2012 ''
New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * '' The ...
'' article, and in his book ''
Hallucinations A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinati ...
''. During his early career in California and New York City he indulged in:
staggering bouts of pharmacological experimentation, underwent a fierce regimen of bodybuilding at Muscle Beach (for a time he held a California record, after he performed a full squat with 600 pounds across his shoulders), and racked up more than 100,000 leather-clad miles on his motorcycle. And then one day he gave it all up—the drugs, the sex, the motorcycles, the bodybuilding.
He wrote that after moving to New York City, an
amphetamine Amphetamine (contracted from alpha- methylphenethylamine) is a strong central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, and obesity. It is also commonly used ...
-facilitated epiphany that came as he read a book by the 19th century
migraine Migraine (, ) is a common neurological disorder characterized by recurrent headaches. Typically, the associated headache affects one side of the head, is pulsating in nature, may be moderate to severe in intensity, and could last from a few hou ...
doctor Edward Liveing inspired him to chronicle his observations on neurological diseases and oddities; to become the "Liveing of our Time". Though he would remain a resident of the United States for the rest of his life, he never became a citizen. He told ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' in a 2005 interview, "In 1961, I declared my intention to become a United States citizen, which may have been a genuine intention, but I never got round to it. I think it may go with a slight feeling that this was only an extended visit. I rather like the words 'resident alien'. It's how I feel. I'm a sympathetic, resident, sort of visiting alien."


Career

Sacks served as an instructor and later clinical professor of neurology at
Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City."About YU
on the Yeshiva Universi ...
's
Albert Einstein College of Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a research-intensive medical school located in the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein operates as an independent degree-granting institution as part of t ...
from 1966 to 2007, and also held an appointment at the
New York University School of Medicine NYU Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, with the other being the Long Island School of ...
from 1992 to 2007. In July 2007 he joined the faculty of
Columbia University Medical Center NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (NYP/CUIMC), also known as the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), is an academic medical center and the largest campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. It includes Co ...
as a professor of neurology and
psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial p ...
. At the same time he was appointed Columbia University's first "Columbia University Artist" at the university's
Morningside Heights Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside ...
campus, recognising the role of his work in bridging the arts and sciences. He was also a visiting professor at the
University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020 ...
in the UK."NYU Langone Medical Center Welcomes Neurologist and Author Oliver Sacks, MD"
. Newswise.com. 13 September 2012.
He returned to
New York University School of Medicine NYU Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, with the other being the Long Island School of ...
in 2012, serving as a professor of neurology and consulting neurologist in the school's epilepsy centre. Sacks's work at Beth Abraham Hospital helped provide the foundation on which the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF) is built; Sacks was an honorary medical advisor. The Institute honoured Sacks in 2000 with its first ''Music Has Power Award''. The IMNF again bestowed a ''Music Has Power Award'' on him in 2006 to commemorate "his 40 years at Beth Abraham and honour his outstanding contributions in support of
music therapy Music therapy, an allied health profession, "is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music t ...
and the effect of music on the human brain and mind." Sacks maintained a busy hospital-based practice in New York City. He accepted a very limited number of private patients, in spite of being in great demand for such consultations. He served on the boards of
The Neurosciences Institute The Neurosciences Institute (NSI) was a small, nonprofit scientific research organization that investigated basic issues in neuroscience. Active mainly between 1981 and 2012, NSI sponsored theoretical, computational, and experimental work on consc ...
and the
New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...
.


Writing

In 1967 Sacks first began to write of his experiences with some of his neurological patients. His first such book, ''Ward 23'', was burned by Sacks during an episode of self-doubt. His books have been translated into over 25 languages. In addition, Sacks was a regular contributor to ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', ''
the New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'', ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', ''
London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review o ...
'' and numerous other medical, scientific and general publications. He was awarded the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science in 2001. Sacks's work is featured in a "broader range of media than those of any other contemporary medical author" and in 1990, ''The New York Times'' wrote he "has become a kind of poet laureate of contemporary medicine". Sacks considered his literary style to have grown out of the tradition of 19th century "clinical anecdotes", a literary style that included detailed narrative case histories, which he termed novelistic. He also counted among his inspirations the case histories of the Russian neuropsychologist
A. R. Luria Alexander Romanovich Luria (russian: Алекса́ндр Рома́нович Лу́рия, p=ˈlurʲɪjə; 16 July 1902 – 14 August 1977) was a Soviet neuropsychologist, often credited as a father of modern neuropsychology. He develope ...
, who became a close friend through correspondence from 1973 to 1977, when Dr. Luria died.Sacks, O. (2014). Luria and "Romantic Science". In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of
cultural-historical psychology Cultural-historical psychology is a branch of psychological theory and practice associated with Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria and their Circle, who initiated it in the mid-1920s–1930s.Yasnitsky, A., van der Veer, R., & Ferrari, M. (Eds.) (2014) ...
(517–528). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
After the publication of his first book ''Migraine'' in 1970, a review by his close friend W. H. Auden encouraged Sacks to adapt his writing style to "be metaphorical, be mythical, be whatever you need." Sacks described his cases with a wealth of narrative detail, concentrating on the experiences of the patient (in the case of his ''A Leg to Stand On'', the patient was himself). The patients he described were often able to adapt to their situation in different ways despite the fact that their neurological conditions were usually considered incurable. His book '' Awakenings'', upon which the 1990 feature film of the same name is based, describes his experiences using the new drug
levodopa -DOPA, also known as levodopa and -3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine, is an amino acid that is made and used as part of the normal biology of some plants and animals, including humans. Humans, as well as a portion of the other animals that utilize -DOPA ...
on post-encephalitic patients at the former Beth Abraham Hospital, currently Beth Abraham Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, Allerton Ave, in The Northeast Bronx, NY. ''Awakenings'' was also the subject of the first documentary made (in 1974) for the British television series ''
Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discove ...
''. Composer and friend of Sacks, Tobias Picker, composed a ballet inspired by ''Awakenings'' for the
Rambert Dance Company Rambert (known as Rambert Dance Company before 2014) is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingd ...
, which was premiered by Rambert in
Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
, UK in 2010; In 2022, Picker premiered an opera of Awakenings at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. In his book ''A Leg to Stand On'' he wrote about the consequences of a near-fatal accident he had at age 41 in 1974, a year after the publication of ''Awakenings'', when he fell off a cliff and severely injured his left leg while
mountaineering Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, ...
alone above
Hardangerfjord The Hardangerfjord ( en, Hardanger Fjord) is the fifth longest fjord in the world, and the second longest fjord in Norway. It is located in Vestland county in the Hardanger region. The fjord stretches from the Atlantic Ocean into the mountai ...
,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...
. In some of his other books, he describes cases of
Tourette syndrome Tourette syndrome or Tourette's syndrome (abbreviated as TS or Tourette's) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that begins in childhood or adolescence. It is characterized by multiple movement (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) ...
and various effects of
Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms beco ...
. The title article of '' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat'' describes a man with
visual agnosia Visual agnosia is an impairment in recognition of visually presented objects. It is not due to a deficit in vision (acuity, visual field, and scanning), language, memory, or intellect. While cortical blindness results from lesions to primary visual ...
and was the subject of a 1986 opera by
Michael Nyman Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer, pianist, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film scores (many written during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Gre ...
. The title article of his book, ''
An Anthropologist on Mars ''An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales'' is a 1995 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks consisting of seven medical case histories of individuals with neurological conditions such as autism and Tourette syndrome. ''An Anthropologist on ...
'', which won a Polk Award for magazine reporting, is about
Temple Grandin Mary Temple Grandin (born August 29, 1947) is an American academic and animal behaviorist. She is a prominent proponent for the humane treatment of livestock for slaughter and the author of more than 60 scientific papers on animal behavior. Gra ...
, an
autistic The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...
professor. He writes in the book's preface that neurological conditions such as autism "can play a paradoxical role, by bringing out latent powers, developments, evolutions, forms of life that might never be seen, or even be imaginable, in their absence". '' Seeing Voices'', Sacks's 1989 book, covers a variety of topics in deaf studies. The romantic drama film ''At First Sight (1999 film), At First Sight'' (1999) was based on the essay "To See and Not See" in ''An Anthropologist on Mars''. In his book ''The Island of the Colorblind'' Sacks wrote about an island where many people have achromatopsia (total colourblindness, very low visual acuity and high photophobia). The second section of this book, entitled ''Cycad Island'', describes the Chamorro people of Guam, who have a high incidence of a neurodegenerative disease locally known as lytico-bodig disease (a devastating combination of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, dementia and parkinsonism). Later, along with Paul Alan Cox, Sacks published papers suggesting a possible environmental cause for the disease, namely the toxin beta-methylamino L-alanine (BMAA) from the cycad nut accumulating by biomagnification in the Pteropus, flying fox bat. In November 2012 Sacks's book ''
Hallucinations A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinati ...
'' was published. In it he examined why ordinary people can sometimes experience hallucinations and challenged the stigma associated with the word. He explained: "Hallucinations don't belong wholly to the insane. Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness or injury." He also considers the less well known Charles Bonnet syndrome, sometimes found in people who have lost their eyesight. The book was described by ''Entertainment Weekly'' as: "Elegant... An absorbing plunge into a mystery of the mind." Sacks sometimes faced criticism in the medical and disability studies communities. Arthur K. Shapiro, for instance, an expert on
Tourette syndrome Tourette syndrome or Tourette's syndrome (abbreviated as TS or Tourette's) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that begins in childhood or adolescence. It is characterized by multiple movement (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) ...
, said Sacks's work was "idiosyncratic" and relied too much on anecdotal evidence in his writings. Researcher Makoto Yamaguchi thought Sacks's mathematical explanations, in his study of the numerically gifted savant twins (in ''The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat''), were irrelevant, and questioned Sacks's methods. Although Sacks has been characterised as a "compassionate" writer and doctor, others have felt that he exploited his subjects. Sacks was called "the man who mistook his patients for a literary career" by British academic and disability rights activist Tom Shakespeare, and one critic called his work "a high-brow freak show". Sacks responded, "I would hope that a reading of what I write shows respect and appreciation, not any wish to expose or exhibit for the thrill... but it's a delicate business." He is also the author of ''The Mind's Eye (book), The Mind's Eye'', ''Oaxaca Journal'' and ''On the Move: A Life'' (his second autobiography). Before his death in 2015 Sacks founded the Oliver Sacks Foundation, a nonprofit organization established to increase understanding of the brain through using narrative nonfiction and case histories, with goals that include publishing some of Sacks's unpublished writings, and making his vast amount of unpublished writings available for scholarly study. His first posthumous book, ''River of Consciousness'', an anthology of his essays, was published in October 2017. Most of the essays had been previously published in various periodicals or in science-essay-anthology books, and are no longer readily obtainable. Sacks specified the order of his essays in ''River of Consciousness'' prior to his death. Some of the essays focus on repressed memories and other tricks the mind plays on itself. His next posthumous book will be a collection of some of his letters. Sacks was a prolific handwritten-letter correspondent and he never communicated by e-mail.


Honours

In 1996 Sacks became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (List of members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Department of Literature, Literature). He was named a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1999. Also in 1999 he became an Honorary Fellow at the Queen's College, Oxford. In 2000 Sacks received the Golden Plate Award of the Academy of Achievement, American Academy of Achievement. In 2002 he became Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Class IV—Humanities and Arts, Section 4—Literature) and he was awarded the 2001 Lewis Thomas Prize by Rockefeller University. Sacks was also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP). Sacks was awarded honorary doctorates from Georgetown University (1990), College of Staten Island (1991), Tufts University (1991), New York Medical College (1991), Drexel University College of Medicine, Medical College of Pennsylvania (1992), Bard College (1992), Queen's University at Kingston (2001), Gallaudet University (2005),
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
(2005), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006) and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (2008). Oxford University awarded him an Honorary degree, honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in June 2005. Sacks received the position "Columbia Artist" from Columbia University in 2007, a post that was created specifically for him and that gave him unconstrained access to the university, regardless of department or discipline. In 2008 Sacks was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), for services to medicine, in the Queen's Birthday Honours. The minor planet List of minor planets: 84001–85000#928, 84928 Oliversacks, discovered in 2003, was named in his honour. In February 2010 Sacks was named as one of the Freedom From Religion Foundation's Honorary Board of distinguished achievers. He described himself as "an old Jewish atheist", a phrase borrowed from his friend Jonathan Miller.


Personal life

Sacks never married and lived alone for most of his life. He declined to share personal details until late in his life. He addressed his homosexuality for the first time in his 2015 autobiography ''On the Move: A Life''.Sacks, O. ''On the Move: A Life''. Knopf (2015). Celibate for about 35 years since his forties, in 2008 he began a friendship with writer and ''New York Times'' contributor Bill Hayes (writer), Bill Hayes. Their friendship slowly evolved into a committed long-term partnership that lasted until Sacks's death; Hayes wrote about it in the 2017 memoir ''Insomniac City, Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me''. In Lawrence Weschler's biography, ''And How Are You, Dr. Sacks?'', Sacks is described by a colleague as "deeply eccentric". A friend from his days as a medical resident mentions Sacks' need to violate taboos, like drinking blood mixed with milk, and how he frequently took drugs like Lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD and Amphetamine, speed in the early 1960s. Sacks himself shared personal information about how he got his first orgasm spontaneously while floating in a swimming pool, and later when he was giving a man a massage. He also admits having "erotic fantasies of all sorts" in a natural history museum he visited often in his youth, many of them about animals, like hippos in the mud. Sacks noted in a 2001 interview that severe shyness, which he described as "a disease", had been a lifelong impediment to his personal interactions. He believed his shyness stemmed from his prosopagnosia, popularly known as "face blindness", a condition that he studied in some of his patients, including the titular man from his work '' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat''. This neurological disability of his, whose severity and whose impact on his life Sacks did not fully grasp until he reached middle age, even prevented him from recognising his own reflection in mirrors. Sacks swam almost daily for most of his life, beginning when his swimming-champion father started him infant swimming#Swimming lessons for infants, swimming as an infant. He especially became publicly well-known for Open water swimming, swimming when he lived in the City Island, Bronx, City Island section of the The Bronx, Bronx, as he would routinely swim around the entire island, or swim vast distances away from the island and back. Sacks was cousin of Nobel laureate Prof.
Robert Aumann Robert John Aumann (Hebrew name: , Yisrael Aumann; born June 8, 1930) is an Israeli-American mathematician, and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. He is a professor at the Center for the Study of Rationality in the Hebrew ...
.


Illness and death

Sacks underwent radiation therapy in 2006 for a uveal melanoma in his right eye. He discussed his stereoblindness, loss of stereoscopic vision caused by the treatment, which eventually resulted in right-eye blindness, in an article and later in his book ''The Mind's Eye (book), The Mind's Eye''. In January 2015 metastasis, metastases from the ocular tumour were discovered in his liver. Sacks announced this development in a February 2015 ''New York Times'' op-ed piece and estimated his remaining time in "months". He expressed his intent to "live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can". He added: "I want and hope in the time that remains to deepen my friendships, to say farewell to those I love, to write more, to travel if I have the strength, to achieve new levels of understanding and insight." Sacks died from the disease on 30 August 2015 at his home in Manhattan at the age of 82, surrounded by his closest friends.


Bibliography


Books

* ''Migraine (book), Migraine'' (1970) * '' Awakenings'' (1973) * ''A Leg to Stand On (book), A Leg to Stand On'' (1984) * '' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat'' (1985) * ''Seeing Voices, Seeing Voices: A Journey Into the World of the Deaf'' (1989) * ''
An Anthropologist on Mars ''An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales'' is a 1995 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks consisting of seven medical case histories of individuals with neurological conditions such as autism and Tourette syndrome. ''An Anthropologist on ...
'' (1995) (First ed.) * ''The Island of the Colorblind'' (1997) * ''Uncle Tungsten, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood'' (2001) (first autobiography) * ''Oaxaca Journal'' (2002) (Travel literature, travelogue of Sacks's ten-day trip with the American Fern Society to Oaxaca, Mexico, 2000) * ''Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain'' (2007) * ''The Mind's Eye (book), The Mind's Eye'' (2010) * ''
Hallucinations A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinati ...
'' (2012) * ''On the Move: A Life'' (2015) (second autobiography) * ''Gratitude'' (2015) (published posthumously) * ''NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity'' by Steve Silberman (2015) (foreword by Sacks) * ''Oliver Sacks: The Last Interview and Other Conversations'' (2016) (a collection of interviews) * ''The River of Consciousness'' (2017) * ''Everything in Its Place: First Loves and Last Tales'' (2019)


Articles

* * Online version is titled "How much a dementia patient needs to know".


References


Further reading

* Simon Callow, "Truth, Beauty, and Oliver Sacks" (review of Oliver Sacks, ''Everything in Its Place: First Loves and Last Tales'', Knopf, 2019, 274 pp.), ''The New York Review of Books'', vol. LXVI, no. 10 (6 June 2019), pp. 4, 6, 8. Oliver Sacks wrote in his public farewell in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'': "Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure." (p. 8.) * Bill Hayes (writer), Bill Hayes: ''Insomniac city : New York, Oliver Sacks, and me', London ; Oxford ; New York ; New Delhi ; Sydney : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018,


External links

* * *
Oliver Sacks Biography and Interview on American Academy of AchievementThe Oliver Sacks Foundation


Multimedia

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine

Interview with Dempsey Rice, documentary filmmaker, about Oliver Sacks film


Publications

** ** ** ** {{DEFAULTSORT:Sacks, Oliver 1933 births 2015 deaths 20th-century atheists 21st-century atheists 20th-century English non-fiction writers 21st-century English writers Academics of the University of Warwick Albert Einstein College of Medicine faculty Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford British neurologists Columbia University faculty Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Deaths from uveal melanoma English atheists English expatriates in the United States English Jews English male non-fiction writers English medical writers English memoirists English neuroscientists English people with disabilities Fellows of The Queen's College, Oxford British gay writers Jewish atheists Jewish physicians LGBT Jews LGBT physicians LGBT scientists from the United Kingdom LGBT writers from England Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Music psychologists New York University Grossman School of Medicine faculty People educated at The Hall School, Hampstead People from Cricklewood Scientists from London The New Yorker people University of California, Los Angeles fellows Writers from London Yeshiva University faculty English people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent People from City Island, Bronx Gay academics Gay scientists English Jewish writers