Musicophilia
Subtitle: Tales of Music and the Brain
By: Oliver Sacks.
Edition: Rev. and expanded, 1st Vintage Books ed. (13)
Publisher: Vintage Books
Published: 2008-09
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 425
ISBN-13: 9781400033539
Copyright date: 2008
Subjects: Music -- Psychological aspects.; Music -- Physiological aspects.
Description: With his trademark compassion and erudition, Oliver Sacks, whom The New York Times has called "the poet Laureate of medicine," explores the place music occupies in the brain and how it affects the human condition. In Musicophilia, he examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians, and everyday people. Among them a surgeon who is struck by lightning and suddenly becomes obsessed with Chopin; people with "amusia," to whom a symphony sounds like the clattering of pots and pans; and a man whose memory spans only seven seconds - for everything but music. Dr. Sacks describes how music can animate people with Parkinson's disease who cannot otherwise move, give words to stroke patients who cannot otherwise speak, and calm and organize people who are deeply disoriented by Alzheimer's or schizophrenia.

Music can be inspiring, moving us to the heights or depths of emotion - and it can also be our best medicine. In Musicophilia Oliver Sacks tells us why. (back cover)
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p.393-409) and index.