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Sacks was formerly employed as a clinical professor of neurology at the [[Albert Einstein College of Medicine]] and at the [[New York University]] School of Medicine, serving the latter school for 42 years.<ref>{{cite press release |url=http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Sept01/Oliver.Sacks.html |title= Acclaimed neurologist and author Dr. Oliver Sacks visits campus as newly appointed A.D. White Professor-at-Large Sept. 9–20 |accessdate=2008-08-09 |work= Cornell News |publisher= Cornell University |date= {{Date|2001-09-04}} }}</ref><ref name="NYTRich">{{cite news |first=Motoko |last=Rich |title=Oliver Sacks Joins Columbia Faculty as 'Artist' |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/01/books/01sack.html |work=The New York Times |date= {{Date|2007-09-01}} |accessdate=2008-08-09 }}</ref> On {{Date|2007-07-01}}, [[Columbia University]] appointed Sacks to a position as professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry, at the same time opening to him a new position as "Columbia Artist", which the university hoped will help interconnect disciplines such as medicine, law, and economics.<ref name="NYTRich"/><ref>{{cite news |first=Bridget |last=O'Brian |title=Oliver Sacks joins Columbia University|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/07/09/sacks.html |work=The Record |publisher=Columbia University |date={{Date|2007-09-05}} |accessdate=2008-08-09 }}</ref> Sacks remains a consultant neurologist to the [[Little Sisters of the Poor]], and maintains a practice in New York City. |
Sacks was formerly employed as a clinical professor of neurology at the [[Albert Einstein College of Medicine]] and at the [[New York University]] School of Medicine, serving the latter school for 42 years.<ref>{{cite press release |url=http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Sept01/Oliver.Sacks.html |title= Acclaimed neurologist and author Dr. Oliver Sacks visits campus as newly appointed A.D. White Professor-at-Large Sept. 9–20 |accessdate=2008-08-09 |work= Cornell News |publisher= Cornell University |date= {{Date|2001-09-04}} }}</ref><ref name="NYTRich">{{cite news |first=Motoko |last=Rich |title=Oliver Sacks Joins Columbia Faculty as 'Artist' |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/01/books/01sack.html |work=The New York Times |date= {{Date|2007-09-01}} |accessdate=2008-08-09 }}</ref> On {{Date|2007-07-01}}, [[Columbia University]] appointed Sacks to a position as professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry, at the same time opening to him a new position as "Columbia Artist", which the university hoped will help interconnect disciplines such as medicine, law, and economics.<ref name="NYTRich"/><ref>{{cite news |first=Bridget |last=O'Brian |title=Oliver Sacks joins Columbia University|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/07/09/sacks.html |work=The Record |publisher=Columbia University |date={{Date|2007-09-05}} |accessdate=2008-08-09 }}</ref> Sacks remains a consultant neurologist to the [[Little Sisters of the Poor]], and maintains a practice in New York City. |
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In March 2006, he was one of 263 doctors who published an open letter in ''[[The Lancet]]'' criticizing American military doctors who administered or oversaw the [[force-feeding]] of [[Guantanamo Bay detainment camp|Guantanamo detainees]] who had committed themselves to [[hunger strike]]s.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Nicholl DJ, Atkinson HG, Kalk J, ''et al'' |title=Forcefeeding and restraint of Guantanamo Bay hunger strikers |journal=Lancet |volume=367 |issue=9513 |pages=811 |year=2006 |month=March |pmid=16530567 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68326-8 |url=}}</ref> |
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==Literary work== |
==Literary work== |
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Since 1970, Oliver Sacks has been writing books about his experience with neurological patients. |
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⚫ | Sacks's writings have been translated into 21 languages, including [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Finnish language|Finnish]], and [[Turkish language|Turkish]]. In addition to his books, Sacks is a regular contributor to ''[[The New Yorker]]'' and ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', as well as other medical, scientific, and general publications.<ref name="sacks_newyorker_search">{{cite web|url=http://www.newyorker.com/search/query?query=authorName:%22Oliver%20Sacks%22|title=Archive: Search: The New Yorker—Oliver Sacks|accessdate=2008-08-13}}</ref><ref name="sacks_newyorkreview_contribs">{{cite web|url=http://www.nybooks.com/authors/1246|title=Oliver Sacks—The New York Review of Books|accessdate=2008-08-13}}</ref><ref name="sacks_periodicals">{{cite web|url=http://www.oliversacks.com/peri1.htm|title=Oliver Sacks . Publications & Periodicals|publisher=www.oliversacks.com|accessdate=2008-08-13}}</ref> He was awarded the [[Lewis Thomas Prize|Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science]] in 2001.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://featuredevents.rockefeller.edu/event_detail.php?id=11&y=2002 |title=Lewis Thomas Prize |date={{Date|2002-03-18}}|accessdate=2008-08-09 |publisher= The Rockefeller University}}</ref> [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]] awarded him an [[Honorary degree|honorary]] [[Doctor of Civil Law]] degree in June 2005.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEH20050214105944&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0 |title= Oxford to confer doctorate on Manmohan Singh |accessdate=2008-08-09 |work=New India Press |date={{Date|2005-02-15}} }}</ref> |
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⚫ | Sacks's work has been featured in a "broader range of media than those of any other contemporary medical author"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.04/sacks_pr.html|author=Silberman, Steve|title=The Fully Immersive Mind of Oliver Sacks|publisher=Wired.com|accessdate=2008-08-10}}</ref> and in 1990, ''[[The New York Times]]'' said he "has become a kind of poet laureate of contemporary medicine".<ref>{{cite news|url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4D8103FF932A35757C0A966958260 |date={{Date|1990-04-01}}|title=Good books abut (sic) being sick|author=Broyard, Anatole|work=The New York Times|accessdate=2008-08-10}}</ref> |
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Sacks considers that his literary style follows the tradition of 19th-century "clinical anecdotes," a literary style that included informal case histories, following the writings of [[Alexander Luria]].<ref name="TranscriptRadioShow">{{cite web |url= http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/mind/stories/s1334384.htm |title= The Inner Life of the Broken Brain: Narrative and Neurology |publisher= [[All in the Mind (Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio)|All in the Mind]] |work= [[Radio National]] |date= {{Date|2005-04-02}}|accessdate=2008-08-10}}</ref> |
Sacks considers that his literary style follows the tradition of 19th-century "clinical anecdotes," a literary style that included informal case histories, following the writings of [[Alexander Luria]].<ref name="TranscriptRadioShow">{{cite web |url= http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/mind/stories/s1334384.htm |title= The Inner Life of the Broken Brain: Narrative and Neurology |publisher= [[All in the Mind (Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio)|All in the Mind]] |work= [[Radio National]] |date= {{Date|2005-04-02}}|accessdate=2008-08-10}}</ref> |
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In his book ''[[The Island of the Colorblind]]'' Sacks describes the [[Chamorro people]] of [[Guam]], who have a high incidence of a form of [[Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis]] (ALS) known as ''Lytico-bodig'' (a devastating combination of ALS, dementia, and parkinsonism). Along with [[Paul Cox (ethnobotanist)|Paul Cox]], Sacks is responsible for the resurgence in interest in the Guam ALS cluster, and has published papers setting out an environmental cause for the cluster, namely toxins such as [[beta-methylamino L-alanine]] (BMAA) from the cycad nut accumulating by [[biomagnification]] in the [[Pteropus|flying fox bat]].<ref name=Ncbi1>{{cite journal |author=Murch SJ, Cox PA, Banack SA, Steele JC, Sacks OW |title=Occurrence of beta-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA) in ALS/PDC patients from Guam |journal=Acta Neurol. Scand. |volume=110 |issue=4 |pages=267–9 |year=2004 |month=October |pmid=15355492 |doi=10.1111/j.1600-0404.2004.00320.x |url=}}</ref><ref name=Ncbi2>{{cite journal |author=Cox PA, Sacks OW |title=Cycad neurotoxins, consumption of flying foxes, and ALS-PDC disease in Guam |journal=Neurology |volume=58 |issue=6 |pages=956–9 |year=2002 |month=March |pmid=11914415 |doi= |url=http://www.neurology.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=11914415}}</ref> |
In his book ''[[The Island of the Colorblind]]'' Sacks describes the [[Chamorro people]] of [[Guam]], who have a high incidence of a form of [[Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis]] (ALS) known as ''Lytico-bodig'' (a devastating combination of ALS, dementia, and parkinsonism). Along with [[Paul Cox (ethnobotanist)|Paul Cox]], Sacks is responsible for the resurgence in interest in the Guam ALS cluster, and has published papers setting out an environmental cause for the cluster, namely toxins such as [[beta-methylamino L-alanine]] (BMAA) from the cycad nut accumulating by [[biomagnification]] in the [[Pteropus|flying fox bat]].<ref name=Ncbi1>{{cite journal |author=Murch SJ, Cox PA, Banack SA, Steele JC, Sacks OW |title=Occurrence of beta-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA) in ALS/PDC patients from Guam |journal=Acta Neurol. Scand. |volume=110 |issue=4 |pages=267–9 |year=2004 |month=October |pmid=15355492 |doi=10.1111/j.1600-0404.2004.00320.x |url=}}</ref><ref name=Ncbi2>{{cite journal |author=Cox PA, Sacks OW |title=Cycad neurotoxins, consumption of flying foxes, and ALS-PDC disease in Guam |journal=Neurology |volume=58 |issue=6 |pages=956–9 |year=2002 |month=March |pmid=11914415 |doi= |url=http://www.neurology.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=11914415}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Sacks's writings have been translated into 21 languages, including [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Finnish language|Finnish]], and [[Turkish language|Turkish]]. In addition to his books, Sacks is a regular contributor to ''[[The New Yorker]]'' and ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', as well as other medical, scientific, and general publications.<ref name="sacks_newyorker_search">{{cite web|url=http://www.newyorker.com/search/query?query=authorName:%22Oliver%20Sacks%22|title=Archive: Search: The New Yorker—Oliver Sacks|accessdate=2008-08-13}}</ref><ref name="sacks_newyorkreview_contribs">{{cite web|url=http://www.nybooks.com/authors/1246|title=Oliver Sacks—The New York Review of Books|accessdate=2008-08-13}}</ref><ref name="sacks_periodicals">{{cite web|url=http://www.oliversacks.com/peri1.htm|title=Oliver Sacks . Publications & Periodicals|publisher=www.oliversacks.com|accessdate=2008-08-13}}</ref> He was awarded the [[Lewis Thomas Prize|Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science]] in 2001.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://featuredevents.rockefeller.edu/event_detail.php?id=11&y=2002 |title=Lewis Thomas Prize |date={{Date|2002-03-18}}|accessdate=2008-08-09 |publisher= The Rockefeller University}}</ref> [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]] awarded him an [[Honorary degree|honorary]] [[Doctor of Civil Law]] degree in June 2005.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEH20050214105944&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0 |title= Oxford to confer doctorate on Manmohan Singh |accessdate=2008-08-09 |work=New India Press |date={{Date|2005-02-15}} }}</ref> |
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⚫ | Sacks's work has been featured in a "broader range of media than those of any other contemporary medical author"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.04/sacks_pr.html|author=Silberman, Steve|title=The Fully Immersive Mind of Oliver Sacks|publisher=Wired.com|accessdate=2008-08-10}}</ref> and in 1990, ''[[The New York Times]]'' said he "has become a kind of poet laureate of contemporary medicine".<ref>{{cite news|url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4D8103FF932A35757C0A966958260 |date={{Date|1990-04-01}}|title=Good books abut (sic) being sick|author=Broyard, Anatole|work=The New York Times|accessdate=2008-08-10}}</ref> |
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At the same time, Sacks has faced criticism in the medical and disability studies communities. His account of abilities of autistic savants has been questioned,<ref>For a criticism of ''The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat'', see {{cite journal |author=Yamaguchi M |title=Questionable aspects of Oliver Sacks' (1985) report |journal=J Autism Dev Disord |volume=37 |issue=7 |pages=1396; discussion 1389–9, 1401 |year=2007 |month=August |pmid=17066308 |doi=10.1007/s10803-006-0257-0 <!-- |url=http://secamlocal.ex.ac.uk/people/staff/mrwatkin/isoc/yamaguchi-sacks.pdf|format=PDF and http://secamlocal.ex.ac.uk/people/staff/mrwatkin/isoc/sacks-yamaguchi.htm -->}}</ref> and [[Arthur K. Shapiro]]—described as "the father of modern [[tic disorder]] research"<ref>{{cite journal|author=Gadow KD, Sverd J |title= Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, chronic tic disorder, and methylphenidate|journal= Adv Neurol |year=2006|volume=99|pages=197–207|pmid= 16536367}}</ref>—referring to Sacks celebrity status and that his literary publications received greater publicity than Shapiro's medical publications, said he is "a much better writer than he is a clinician".<ref>Kushner, HI. ''A Cursing Brain? : The Histories of Tourette Syndrome''. Harvard University Press, 2000, p. 205. ISBN 0-674-00386-1</ref> Howard Kushner's ''A Cursing Brain? : The Histories of Tourette Syndrome'', says Shapiro "contrasted his own careful clinical work with Sacks's idiosyncratic and anecdotal approach to a clinical investigation".<ref>Kushner (2000), p. 204</ref> More sustained has been the critique of his political and ethical positions. Although many characterize Sacks as a "compassionate" writer and doctor,<ref name="weinraub">{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1044036.html|title=Oliver Sacks: Hero of the Hopeless; The Doctor of 'Awakenings,' With Compassion for the Chronically Ill|last=Weinraub|first=Judith |date={{Date|1991-01-13}}|work=[[The Washington Post]]|accessdate=2008-08-12}}</ref><ref name="bianculli">{{cite web|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/1998/08/25/1998-08-25_healthy_dose_of_compassion_i.html|title=Healthy Dose of Compassion in Medical 'Mind' Series|last=Bianculli|first=David|date={{Date|1998-08-25}}|work=[[Daily News (New York)|New York Daily News]]|accessdate=2008-08-12}}</ref><ref name="kakutani_1995">{{cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEEDB1330F937A25751C0A963958260|title=Finding the Advantages In Some Mind Disorders|last=Kakutani|first=Michiko|date={{Date|1995-02-14}}|work=[[New York Times]]|accessdate=2008-08-12}}</ref> others feel he exploits his subjects.<ref> {{cite web |url= http://66.102.1.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:RiuhVitdqOoJ:cms.mit.edu/research/theses/Kestrell2006.pdf+%22the+man+who+mistook+his+patients+for+a+literary+career%22 |title= Decloaking Disability: Images of Disability and Technology in Science Fiction Media |author = Verlager, Alicia | month = August | year = 2006 | format = Masters' thesis | publisher = MIT.edu | accessdate = 2008-08-10 | quote = However, Sacks's use of his preoccupation with people with disabilities as the foundation for his professional career has led many disability advocates to compare him to P. T. Barnum, whose own professional career (and its subsequent monetary profit) was based to a large degree upon his employment of PWD as 'freaks.' ... Note also the science fiction aspect to the title of Sacks's book, which frames the disabled people he writes about as 'aliens' from a different planet. One issue in the dynamic of the expert who appoints himself as the official storyteller of the experience of disability is that both the professional and financial success of the storyteller often rely upon his framing of the disabled characters as extraordinary, freakish, or abnormal. This is what disability studies scholars and disability advocates term the 'medicalization of disability' (Linton 1998, 1-2). }}</ref> Sacks was called "the man who mistook his patients for a literary career" by British academic and disability-rights activist [[Tom Shakespeare]],<ref>{{cite journal|last= Shakespeare |first= Tom |url= http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=14027836&site=ehost-live |journal= Disability and Society |volume= 11 |issue= 1 |pages= 137–142 |title= Book Review: ''An Anthropologist on Mars'' |year= 1996 |accessdate=2008-08-11|doi= 10.1080/09687599650023380 }}</ref> and one critic called his work "a high-brow freak show".<ref name=Couser> {{cite web |url=http://poynter.indiana.edu/publications/m-couser.pdf |format=PDF |author=Couser, G. Thomas |title=The case of Oliver Sacks: The ethics of neuroanthropology|month=December | year=2001|publisher=The Poynter Center, Indiana University|accessdate=2008-08-10|quote= One charge is that his work is, in effect, a high-brow freak show that invites its audience to gawk at human oddities ... Because Sacks' life writing takes place outside the confines of biomedicine and anthropology, it may not, strictly speaking, be subject to their explicit ethical codes.}}</ref> Such criticism was echoed in the movie ''[[The Royal Tenenbaums]]'', with [[Bill Murray]]'s comic portrayal of "an Oliver Sacks-like neurologist who snickers openly at his weirdo subjects".<ref name="klawans">{{cite web|url=http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020107/klawans/2|title=Home for the Holidays|last=Klawans|first=Stuart|date={{Date|2001-12-20}}|work= [[The Nation]] |accessdate=2008-08-11}}</ref> Sacks himself has stated "I would hope that a reading of what I write shows respect and appreciation, not any wish to expose or exhibit for the thrill," he sighs, "but it's a delicate business."<ref name="Burkeman">{{cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2002/may/10/medicalscience.scienceandnature?gusrc=rss&feed=books|title=Sacks appeal|last=Burkeman|first=Oliver|date={{Date|2002-05-10}}|work= [[The Guardian]]|accessdate=2008-08-18}}</ref> |
At the same time, Sacks has faced criticism in the medical and disability studies communities. His account of abilities of autistic savants has been questioned,<ref>For a criticism of ''The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat'', see {{cite journal |author=Yamaguchi M |title=Questionable aspects of Oliver Sacks' (1985) report |journal=J Autism Dev Disord |volume=37 |issue=7 |pages=1396; discussion 1389–9, 1401 |year=2007 |month=August |pmid=17066308 |doi=10.1007/s10803-006-0257-0 <!-- |url=http://secamlocal.ex.ac.uk/people/staff/mrwatkin/isoc/yamaguchi-sacks.pdf|format=PDF and http://secamlocal.ex.ac.uk/people/staff/mrwatkin/isoc/sacks-yamaguchi.htm -->}}</ref> and [[Arthur K. Shapiro]]—described as "the father of modern [[tic disorder]] research"<ref>{{cite journal|author=Gadow KD, Sverd J |title= Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, chronic tic disorder, and methylphenidate|journal= Adv Neurol |year=2006|volume=99|pages=197–207|pmid= 16536367}}</ref>—referring to Sacks celebrity status and that his literary publications received greater publicity than Shapiro's medical publications, said he is "a much better writer than he is a clinician".<ref>Kushner, HI. ''A Cursing Brain? : The Histories of Tourette Syndrome''. Harvard University Press, 2000, p. 205. ISBN 0-674-00386-1</ref> Howard Kushner's ''A Cursing Brain? : The Histories of Tourette Syndrome'', says Shapiro "contrasted his own careful clinical work with Sacks's idiosyncratic and anecdotal approach to a clinical investigation".<ref>Kushner (2000), p. 204</ref> More sustained has been the critique of his political and ethical positions. Although many characterize Sacks as a "compassionate" writer and doctor,<ref name="weinraub">{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1044036.html|title=Oliver Sacks: Hero of the Hopeless; The Doctor of 'Awakenings,' With Compassion for the Chronically Ill|last=Weinraub|first=Judith |date={{Date|1991-01-13}}|work=[[The Washington Post]]|accessdate=2008-08-12}}</ref><ref name="bianculli">{{cite web|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/1998/08/25/1998-08-25_healthy_dose_of_compassion_i.html|title=Healthy Dose of Compassion in Medical 'Mind' Series|last=Bianculli|first=David|date={{Date|1998-08-25}}|work=[[Daily News (New York)|New York Daily News]]|accessdate=2008-08-12}}</ref><ref name="kakutani_1995">{{cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEEDB1330F937A25751C0A963958260|title=Finding the Advantages In Some Mind Disorders|last=Kakutani|first=Michiko|date={{Date|1995-02-14}}|work=[[New York Times]]|accessdate=2008-08-12}}</ref> others feel he exploits his subjects.<ref> {{cite web |url= http://66.102.1.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:RiuhVitdqOoJ:cms.mit.edu/research/theses/Kestrell2006.pdf+%22the+man+who+mistook+his+patients+for+a+literary+career%22 |title= Decloaking Disability: Images of Disability and Technology in Science Fiction Media |author = Verlager, Alicia | month = August | year = 2006 | format = Masters' thesis | publisher = MIT.edu | accessdate = 2008-08-10 | quote = However, Sacks's use of his preoccupation with people with disabilities as the foundation for his professional career has led many disability advocates to compare him to P. T. Barnum, whose own professional career (and its subsequent monetary profit) was based to a large degree upon his employment of PWD as 'freaks.' ... Note also the science fiction aspect to the title of Sacks's book, which frames the disabled people he writes about as 'aliens' from a different planet. One issue in the dynamic of the expert who appoints himself as the official storyteller of the experience of disability is that both the professional and financial success of the storyteller often rely upon his framing of the disabled characters as extraordinary, freakish, or abnormal. This is what disability studies scholars and disability advocates term the 'medicalization of disability' (Linton 1998, 1-2). }}</ref> Sacks was called "the man who mistook his patients for a literary career" by British academic and disability-rights activist [[Tom Shakespeare]],<ref>{{cite journal|last= Shakespeare |first= Tom |url= http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=14027836&site=ehost-live |journal= Disability and Society |volume= 11 |issue= 1 |pages= 137–142 |title= Book Review: ''An Anthropologist on Mars'' |year= 1996 |accessdate=2008-08-11|doi= 10.1080/09687599650023380 }}</ref> and one critic called his work "a high-brow freak show".<ref name=Couser> {{cite web |url=http://poynter.indiana.edu/publications/m-couser.pdf |format=PDF |author=Couser, G. Thomas |title=The case of Oliver Sacks: The ethics of neuroanthropology|month=December | year=2001|publisher=The Poynter Center, Indiana University|accessdate=2008-08-10|quote= One charge is that his work is, in effect, a high-brow freak show that invites its audience to gawk at human oddities ... Because Sacks' life writing takes place outside the confines of biomedicine and anthropology, it may not, strictly speaking, be subject to their explicit ethical codes.}}</ref> Such criticism was echoed in the movie ''[[The Royal Tenenbaums]]'', with [[Bill Murray]]'s comic portrayal of "an Oliver Sacks-like neurologist who snickers openly at his weirdo subjects".<ref name="klawans">{{cite web|url=http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020107/klawans/2|title=Home for the Holidays|last=Klawans|first=Stuart|date={{Date|2001-12-20}}|work= [[The Nation]] |accessdate=2008-08-11}}</ref> Sacks himself has stated "I would hope that a reading of what I write shows respect and appreciation, not any wish to expose or exhibit for the thrill," he sighs, "but it's a delicate business."<ref name="Burkeman">{{cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2002/may/10/medicalscience.scienceandnature?gusrc=rss&feed=books|title=Sacks appeal|last=Burkeman|first=Oliver|date={{Date|2002-05-10}}|work= [[The Guardian]]|accessdate=2008-08-18}}</ref> |
Revision as of 08:58, 19 November 2008
Oliver Sacks | |
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![]() Oliver Sacks in 2005 | |
Born | |
Years active | 1966 – present |
Known for | popular series of books about cases and patients |
Medical career | |
Profession | physician |
Sub-specialties | neurology |
Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE (born July 9, 1933, London), is a British neurologist residing in the United States, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.
Early life and education
Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and Elsie, a surgeon.[1] When he was six years old, he and his brother were evacuated from London to escape The Blitz, retreating to a boarding school in the Midlands, where he remained until 1943.[1] During his youth, he was a keen amateur chemist, as recalled in his memoir Uncle Tungsten.[2] He also learned to share his parents' enthusiasm for medicine and entered The Queen's College, Oxford University in 1951,[1] from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in physiology and biology in 1954.[3] At the same institution, he went on to earn in 1958, a Master of Arts (MA) and an MB ChB in chemistry, thereby qualifying to practice medicine.
Professional life
Neuropsychology |
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After converting his British qualifications to American recognition (i.e., an MD as opposed to MB ChB), Sacks moved to New York, where he has lived since 1965, and taken twice weekly therapy sessions since 1966.[1]
Sacks began consulting at chronic care facility Beth Abraham Hospital (now Beth Abraham Health Service) in 1966.[4] At Beth Abraham, Sacks worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness, encephalitis lethargica, who had been unable to move on their own for decades.[4] These patients and his treatment of them were the basis of Sacks' book Awakenings.[4]
His work at Beth Abraham helped provide the foundation on which the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF) is built; Sacks is currently an honorary medical advisor.[5] In 2000, IMNF honored Sacks, its founder, with its first Music Has Power Award.[6] The IMNF again bestowed a Music Has Power Award on Sacks in 2006 to commemorate "his 40 years at Beth Abraham and honor his outstanding contributions in support of music therapy and the effect of music on the human brain and mind".[7]
Sacks was formerly employed as a clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and at the New York University School of Medicine, serving the latter school for 42 years.[8][9] On 1 July 2007, Columbia University appointed Sacks to a position as professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry, at the same time opening to him a new position as "Columbia Artist", which the university hoped will help interconnect disciplines such as medicine, law, and economics.[9][10] Sacks remains a consultant neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor, and maintains a practice in New York City.
In March 2006, he was one of 263 doctors who published an open letter in The Lancet criticizing American military doctors who administered or oversaw the force-feeding of Guantanamo detainees who had committed themselves to hunger strikes.[11]
Literary work
Since 1970, Oliver Sacks has been writing books about his experience with neurological patients. Sacks's writings have been translated into 21 languages, including Catalan, Finnish, and Turkish. In addition to his books, Sacks is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, as well as other medical, scientific, and general publications.[12][13][14] He was awarded the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science in 2001.[15] Oxford University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in June 2005.[16]
Sacks's work has been featured in a "broader range of media than those of any other contemporary medical author"[17] and in 1990, The New York Times said he "has become a kind of poet laureate of contemporary medicine".[18]
Sacks considers that his literary style follows the tradition of 19th-century "clinical anecdotes," a literary style that included informal case histories, following the writings of Alexander Luria.[19]
Sacks describes his cases with little clinical 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 describes are often able to adapt to their situation in different ways despite the fact that their neurological conditions are usually considered incurable.[20] His most famous book, Awakenings, upon which the movie of the same name is based, describes his experiences using the new drug L-Dopa on Beth Abraham post-encephalitic patients.[4] Awakenings was also the subject of the first film made in the British television series Discovery.
In his other books, he describes cases of Tourette syndrome and various effects of Parkinson's disease. The title article of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is about a man with visual agnosia and was the subject of a 1986 opera by Michael Nyman. The title article of An Anthropologist on Mars is about Temple Grandin, a professor with high-functioning autism.
In his book The Island of the Colorblind Sacks describes the Chamorro people of Guam, who have a high incidence of a form of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) known as Lytico-bodig (a devastating combination of ALS, dementia, and parkinsonism). Along with Paul Cox, Sacks is responsible for the resurgence in interest in the Guam ALS cluster, and has published papers setting out an environmental cause for the cluster, namely toxins such as beta-methylamino L-alanine (BMAA) from the cycad nut accumulating by biomagnification in the flying fox bat.[21][22]
At the same time, Sacks has faced criticism in the medical and disability studies communities. His account of abilities of autistic savants has been questioned,[23] and Arthur K. Shapiro—described as "the father of modern tic disorder research"[24]—referring to Sacks celebrity status and that his literary publications received greater publicity than Shapiro's medical publications, said he is "a much better writer than he is a clinician".[25] Howard Kushner's A Cursing Brain? : The Histories of Tourette Syndrome, says Shapiro "contrasted his own careful clinical work with Sacks's idiosyncratic and anecdotal approach to a clinical investigation".[26] More sustained has been the critique of his political and ethical positions. Although many characterize Sacks as a "compassionate" writer and doctor,[27][28][29] others feel he exploits his subjects.[30] Sacks was called "the man who mistook his patients for a literary career" by British academic and disability-rights activist Tom Shakespeare,[31] and one critic called his work "a high-brow freak show".[32] Such criticism was echoed in the movie The Royal Tenenbaums, with Bill Murray's comic portrayal of "an Oliver Sacks-like neurologist who snickers openly at his weirdo subjects".[33] Sacks himself has stated "I would hope that a reading of what I write shows respect and appreciation, not any wish to expose or exhibit for the thrill," he sighs, "but it's a delicate business."[34]
Honours
Since 1996, Sacks is a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature).[35] In 1999, Sacks became a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences.[36] Also in 1999, he became an Honorary Fellow at The Queen's College, Oxford.[37] In 2002, he became Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Class IV—Humanities and Arts, Section 4—Literature).[38] and he was awarded the 2001 Lewis Thomas Prize by Rockefeller University.[39]
Sacks has been awarded honorary doctorates from the College of Staten Island (1991),[3] Tufts University (1991),[40] New York Medical College (1991),[3] Georgetown University (1992),[41] Medical College of Pennsylvania (1992),[3] Bard College (1992),[42] Queen's University (Ontario) (2001),[43] Gallaudet University (2005),[44] University of Oxford (2005),[45] Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006).[46] He was made an honorary member of the honors society of Saint John's University on October 5, 2008.[citation needed]
Sacks was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.[47]
Asteroid 84928 Oliversacks, discovered in 2003 and 2 miles (3.2 km) in diameter, was named in his honor.[48]
Publications
- Migraine (1970)
- Awakenings (1973)
- A Leg to Stand On (1984) (Sacks' own experience of losing the control of one of his legs after an accident)
- The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1985)
- Seeing Voices: A Journey into the Land of the Deaf (1989). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-06083-0.
- An Anthropologist on Mars (1995)
- The Island of the Colorblind (1997) (total congenital color blindness in an island society)
- Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood (2001)
- Oaxaca Journal (2002)
- Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (2007)
- "The Mind's Eye (Oliver Sacks)" (positive experiences of blind people)—published in The Best American Essays 2004, Ed. Robert Atwan
References
- ^ a b c d Brown, Andrew (5 March 2005). "Oliver Sacks Profile: Seeing double". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
- ^ Sacks, Oliver (2001). Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood. Vintage Books. ISBN 0-375-40448-1.
- ^ a b c d "Oliver Sacks, MD, FRCP". Official site. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
- ^ a b c d "Biography . Oliver Sacks, MD, FRCP". Official website. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
- ^ "About the Institute". Institute for Music and Neurologic Function. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
- ^ "Henry Z. Steinway honored with 'Music Has Power' award: Beth Abraham Hospital honors piano maker for a lifetime of 'affirming the value of music'". Music Trades Magazine. 1 January 2006. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
- ^ "2006 Music Has Power Awards featuring performance by Rob Thomas, honoring acclaimed neurologist & author Dr. Oliver Sacks" (Press release). Beth Abraham Family of Health Services. 13 October 2006. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
- ^ "Acclaimed neurologist and author Dr. Oliver Sacks visits campus as newly appointed A.D. White Professor-at-Large Sept. 9–20". Cornell News (Press release). Cornell University. 4 September 2001. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
- ^ a b Rich, Motoko (1 September 2007). "Oliver Sacks Joins Columbia Faculty as 'Artist'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
- ^ O'Brian, Bridget (5 September 2007). "Oliver Sacks joins Columbia University". The Record. Columbia University. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
- ^ Nicholl DJ, Atkinson HG, Kalk J; et al. (2006). "Forcefeeding and restraint of Guantanamo Bay hunger strikers". Lancet. 367 (9513): 811. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68326-8. PMID 16530567.
{{cite journal}}
: Explicit use of et al. in:|author=
(help); Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Archive: Search: The New Yorker—Oliver Sacks". Retrieved 2008-08-13.
- ^ "Oliver Sacks—The New York Review of Books". Retrieved 2008-08-13.
- ^ "Oliver Sacks . Publications & Periodicals". www.oliversacks.com. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
- ^ "Lewis Thomas Prize". The Rockefeller University. 18 March 2002. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
- ^ "Oxford to confer doctorate on Manmohan Singh". New India Press. 15 February 2005. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
- ^ Silberman, Steve. "The Fully Immersive Mind of Oliver Sacks". Wired.com. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
- ^ Broyard, Anatole (1 April 1990). "Good books abut (sic) being sick". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
- ^ "The Inner Life of the Broken Brain: Narrative and Neurology". Radio National. All in the Mind. 2 April 2005. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
- ^ Sacks, Oliver (1996) [1995]. "Preface". An Anthropologist on Mars (New Ed ed.). London: Picador. pp. xiii–xviii. ISBN 0-330-34347-5.
The sense of the brain's remarkable plasticity, its capacity for the most striking adaptations, not least in the special (and often desperate) circumstances of neural or sensory mishap, has come to dominate my own perception of my patients and their lives.
{{cite book}}
:|edition=
has extra text (help) - ^ Murch SJ, Cox PA, Banack SA, Steele JC, Sacks OW (2004). "Occurrence of beta-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA) in ALS/PDC patients from Guam". Acta Neurol. Scand. 110 (4): 267–9. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0404.2004.00320.x. PMID 15355492.
{{cite journal}}
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ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Cox PA, Sacks OW (2002). "Cycad neurotoxins, consumption of flying foxes, and ALS-PDC disease in Guam". Neurology. 58 (6): 956–9. PMID 11914415.
{{cite journal}}
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ignored (help) - ^ For a criticism of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, see Yamaguchi M (2007). "Questionable aspects of Oliver Sacks' (1985) report". J Autism Dev Disord. 37 (7): 1396, discussion 1389–9, 1401. doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0257-0. PMID 17066308.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - ^ Gadow KD, Sverd J (2006). "Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, chronic tic disorder, and methylphenidate". Adv Neurol. 99: 197–207. PMID 16536367.
- ^ Kushner, HI. A Cursing Brain? : The Histories of Tourette Syndrome. Harvard University Press, 2000, p. 205. ISBN 0-674-00386-1
- ^ Kushner (2000), p. 204
- ^ Weinraub, Judith (13 January 1991). "Oliver Sacks: Hero of the Hopeless; The Doctor of 'Awakenings,' With Compassion for the Chronically Ill". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-08-12.
- ^ Bianculli, David (25 August 1998). "Healthy Dose of Compassion in Medical 'Mind' Series". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2008-08-12.
- ^ Kakutani, Michiko (14 February 1995). "Finding the Advantages In Some Mind Disorders". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-12.
- ^ Verlager, Alicia (2006). "Decloaking Disability: Images of Disability and Technology in Science Fiction Media" (Masters' thesis). MIT.edu. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
However, Sacks's use of his preoccupation with people with disabilities as the foundation for his professional career has led many disability advocates to compare him to P. T. Barnum, whose own professional career (and its subsequent monetary profit) was based to a large degree upon his employment of PWD as 'freaks.' ... Note also the science fiction aspect to the title of Sacks's book, which frames the disabled people he writes about as 'aliens' from a different planet. One issue in the dynamic of the expert who appoints himself as the official storyteller of the experience of disability is that both the professional and financial success of the storyteller often rely upon his framing of the disabled characters as extraordinary, freakish, or abnormal. This is what disability studies scholars and disability advocates term the 'medicalization of disability' (Linton 1998, 1-2).
{{cite web}}
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ignored (help) - ^ Shakespeare, Tom (1996). "Book Review: An Anthropologist on Mars". Disability and Society. 11 (1): 137–142. doi:10.1080/09687599650023380. Retrieved 2008-08-11.
- ^ Couser, G. Thomas (2001). "The case of Oliver Sacks: The ethics of neuroanthropology" (PDF). The Poynter Center, Indiana University. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
One charge is that his work is, in effect, a high-brow freak show that invites its audience to gawk at human oddities ... Because Sacks' life writing takes place outside the confines of biomedicine and anthropology, it may not, strictly speaking, be subject to their explicit ethical codes.
{{cite web}}
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ignored (help) - ^ Klawans, Stuart (20 December 2001). "Home for the Holidays". The Nation. Retrieved 2008-08-11.
- ^ Burkeman, Oliver (10 May 2002). "Sacks appeal". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-08-18.
- ^ "Current Members". The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
- ^ "New York Academy of Sciences Announces 1999 Fellows". New York Academy of Sciences. 6 October 1999. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
- ^ "Honorary Fellows". The Queen's College, Oxford. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
- ^ "Class of 2002 - Fellows". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 2002. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
- ^ "Oliver Sacks, Awakenings Author, Receives Rockefeller University's Lewis Thomas Prize". Rockefeller University. 2002. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
- ^ "Tufts University Factbook 2006–2007 (abridged)" (PDF (4.7 MB)). Tufts University. pp. p. 127. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
{{cite web}}
:|pages=
has extra text (help) - ^ "COMMENCEMENTS; At Georgetown, a Speech on Education's Ills". The New York Times. 24 May 1992. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
- ^ "Bard College Catalogue 2007–2008—Honorary Degrees". Bard College. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
- ^ "Neurologist, peace activist among honorary graduands" (PDF). Gazette, vol. XXXII, no. 9. Queen's University. 7 May 2001. pp. P.1, 2. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
{{cite web}}
:|pages=
has extra text (help) - ^ "Famed physician delivers Commencement address". Gallaudet University. 1 May 2005. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
- ^ "2005 honorary degrees announced". University of Oxford. 14 February 2005. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
- ^ "Doctores honoris causa" (in Spanish). Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
- ^ "No. 58729". The London Gazette (invalid
|supp=
(help)). 14 June 2008. - ^ Bloom, Julie (September 13, 2008). "Dr. Sacks's Asteroid". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/34px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png)
- Oliver Sacks website
- 1989 audio interview with Oliver Sacks at Wired for Books.org by Don Swaim
- New York Times Op-Ed by Oliver Sacks regarding the Island of Stability theory
- New York Times Op-Ed piece about encephalitis lethargica
- 2007 video of Oliver Sacks discussing his book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (27 October 2007)
- Article in TATE ETC. Summer 2007 including exclusive stereograph of his first photograph, taken at age 12