Oliver Sacks

**Oliver Wolf Sacks**, CBE (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurologist and writer. He was Professor of Neurology at New York University School of Medicine. Between 2007 and 2012, he was professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University, where he also held the position of "Columbia Artist," which recognized his contributions to art and science. Before that, he spent many years on the clinical faculty of Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He also held the position of visiting professor at the University of Warwick.

Sacks was the author of numerous best-selling books, including several collections of case studies of people with neurological disorders. His 1973 book *Awakenings*, an autobiographical account of his efforts to help people with encephalitis lethargica regain proper neurological function, was adapted into the Academy Award-nominated film of the same name in 1990 starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. He and his book *Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain* were the subject of "Musical Minds", an episode of the PBS series *Nova*. In 2008 he was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to literature.

## Early life

Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a North London Jewish couple: Samuel Sacks, a physician (died June 1990), and Muriel Elsie Landau, one of the first female surgeons in England. Sacks has a large extended family; his first cousins include Israeli statesman Abba Eban, writer and director Jonathan Lynn,Template:Fix/category[*citation needed*] and Nobel Laureate Robert Aumann

When Sacks was six years old, he and his brother Michael were evacuated from London to escape the Blitz, retreating to a boarding school in the Midlands where he remained until 1943. Unknown to his family, at the school, he and his brother Michael ".. subsisted on meagre rations of turnips and beetroot and suffered cruel punishments at the hands of a sadistic headmaster." He attended St Paul's School in London. During his youth he was a keen amateur chemist, as recalled in his memoir *Uncle Tungsten*. He also learned to share his parents' enthusiasm for medicine and entered The Queen's College, Oxford, in 1951, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in physiology and biology in 1954. At the same institution he went on to earn a Master of Arts degree and then a Medical degree, in 1958.

Sacks left England for Canada, then made his way from there to the United States. He completed a residency in Neurology at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco, and fellowships in Neurology and Psychiatry at UCLA. During his time at UCLA he lived in Topanga Canyon  and experimented with various recreational drugs. He described his experiences in a 2012 *New Yorker* article, and his book *Hallucinations*. He said that an amphetamine-facilitated epiphany that came as he read a book by the 19th century migraine physician Edward Liveing inspired him to chronicle his observations on neurological diseases and oddities; to become the "Liveing of our Time".

## Career

After converting his British qualifications to American recognition (i.e., an MD as opposed to BM BCh), Sacks moved to New York, where he lived and practiced neurology beginning in 1965.

Sacks began consulting at chronic care facility Beth Abraham Hospital (now Beth Abraham Health Services, a member of CenterLight Health System) in the Bronx, in 1966. At Beth Abraham, Sacks worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleepy sickness, encephalitis lethargica, who had been unable to move on their own for decades. These patients and his treatment of them were the basis of Sacks' book *Awakenings*.

Sacks served as an instructor and later clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1966 to 2007, and also held an appointment at the New York University School of Medicine from 1992 to 2007. In July 2007 he joined the faculty of Columbia University Medical Center as a professor of neurology and psychiatry. At the same time, he was appointed Columbia University's first "Columbia University Artist" at the University's Morningside Heights campus, recognising the role of his work in bridging the arts and sciences.

In 1966, Sacks became a neurological consultant to various New York City nursing homes that are run by the Little Sisters of the Poor, and from 1966 to 1991 was a consulting neurologist at Bronx Psychiatric Center. Sacks returned to New York University School of Medicine in 2012, serving as both a professor of neurology and consulting neurologist in the center's epilepsy center.

Sacks' work at Beth Abraham 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 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".

Sacks maintained a practice in New York City. He served on the boards of the The Neurosciences Institute and the New York Botanical Garden.

### Writing

Beginning in 1970, Sacks wrote of his experience with neurological patients. His books have been translated into over 25 languages. In addition to his books, Sacks was a regular contributor to *The New Yorker* and *The New York Review of Books*, as well as other medical, scientific, and general publications. He was awarded the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science in 2001.

Sacks' work was featured in a "broader range of media than those of any other contemporary medical author" and in 1990, *The New York Times* said he "has become a kind of poet laureate of contemporary medicine". His descriptions of people coping with and adapting to neurological conditions or injuries often illuminate the ways in which the normal brain deals with perception, memory and individuality.

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. He also counted among his inspirations the case histories of the Russian neuropsychologist A. R. Luria.

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 most famous book, *Awakenings*, upon which the 1990 feature film of the same name is based, describes his experiences using the new drug levodopa on Beth Abraham post-encephalitic patients. *Awakenings* was also the subject of the first documentary made (in 1974) for 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*, which won a Polk Award for magazine reporting, is about Temple Grandin, an autistic professor. *Seeing Voices*, Sacks' 1989 book, covers a variety of topics in Deaf studies.

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), and describes the Chamorro people of Guam, who have a high incidence of a neurodegenerative disease known as Lytico-Bodig disease (a devastating combination of ALS, dementia, and parkinsonism). Along with Paul Alan Cox, Sacks published papers suggesting a possible environmental cause for the cluster, namely the toxin beta-methylamino L-alanine (BMAA) from the cycad nut accumulating by biomagnification in the flying fox bat.

In November 2012, Sacks released his book *Hallucinations*. In this work Sacks takes a look into why ordinary people can sometimes experience hallucinations and removes the stigma placed behind the word. He explains, "Hallucinations don't belong wholly to the insane. Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness or injury." Sacks writes about the not so well known phenomenon called Charles Bonnet syndrome, which has been found to occur in elderly people who have lost their eyesight. The book has been described by *Entertainment Weekly* as, "Elegant… An absorbing plunge into a mystery of the mind,"

#### Criticism

Sacks sometimes faced criticism in the medical and disability studies communities. His account of abilities of autistic savants has been questioned by researcher Makoto Yamaguchi. According to Yamaguchi, Sacks' mathematical explanations are also irrelevant. Arthur K. Shapiro—described as "the father of modern tic disorder research"—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". Howard Kushner's *A Cursing Brain?: The Histories of Tourette Syndrome*, says Shapiro "contrasted his own careful clinical work with Sacks' idiosyncratic and anecdotal approach to a clinical investigation".

More sustained has been the critique of his political and ethical positions. Although many characterise Sacks as a "compassionate" writer and doctor, others feel that he exploits 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". Such criticism was echoed by a Sacks-like caricature played by Bill Murray in the film *The Royal Tenenbaums*. Sacks 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... but it's a delicate business."

## Honours

In 1996, Sacks became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (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 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 awarded honorary doctorates from the Georgetown University (1990), College of Staten Island (1991), Tufts University (1991), New York Medical College (1991), Medical College of Pennsylvania (1992), Bard College (1992), Queen's University (Ontario) (2001), Gallaudet University (2005), University of Oxford (2005), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006), and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (2008).

Oxford University awarded him an 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. In this capacity he gains unconstrained access to the University, regardless of department or discipline.

Sacks was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours.

The minor planet 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".

## Personal life

Sacks never married, and lived alone for most of his life. He had declined to share details from his personal life until late in his life. He addressed his homosexuality for the first time in his 2015 autobiography *On the Move: A Life*. During his early career 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."
>
>

 Celibate for about 35 years, he began a relationship with writer and *New York Times* contributor Bill Hayes in 2008. He noted in a 2001 interview that severe shyness—which he described as "a disease"—had been a lifelong impediment to his personal interactions.

Sacks swam almost every day for decades, especially when he lived in the City Island section of the Bronx. He discussed his work and his personal health problems in a 28 June 2011 BBC documentary *Imagine*. He wrote about a near-fatal accident he had at age 41, a year after the publication of *Awakenings*, when he fell and broke his leg while mountaineering alone.

Sacks waged a lifelong battle with prosopagnosia, known popularly as "face blindness", which he discussed at length in a 2010 *New Yorker* piece.

### Illness and death

In 2010, Sacks addressed the loss of his stereoscopic vision due to treatment in 2001 for an ocular melanoma in his right eye, then expanded on it in a book, *The Mind's Eye*, published in October 2010.

Sacks was diagnosed with terminal metastatic liver cancer in January 2015. In a February 2015 *New York Times* op-ed piece, Sacks announced that widespread metastases from the ocular tumor had been discovered. Measuring his anticipated 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."
>
>

He died on 30 August 2015 in his home in Manhattan at the age of 82 from the disease.

## Publications

### As main author

* *Migraine* (1970)
* *Awakenings* (1973)
* *A Leg to Stand On* (1984) (Sacks's own experience, after an accident, of losing the awareness of one of his legs)
* *The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat* (1985)
* *Seeing Voices: A Journey Into the World of the Deaf* (1989)
* *An Anthropologist on Mars* (1995)
* *The Island of the Colorblind* (1997) (total congenital color blindness in an island society, Guam disease)
* *Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood* (2001)
* *Oaxaca Journal* (2002)
* *Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain* (2007)
* *The Mind's Eye* (2010)
* *Hallucinations* (2012) (Knopf/Picador)
* *On the Move: A life* (2015) autobiography

## References

1. ↑ Anthony, Andrew Oliver Sacks: The visionary who can't recognise faces *The Guardian*, 17 October 2010
2. ↑ Brown, Andrew Seeing double *The Guardian*, 5 March 2005
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Oliver Sacks dies in New York aged 82". BBC. Retrieved 30 August 2015
4. ↑ "NYU Langone Medical Center Welcomes Neurologist and Author Oliver Sacks, MD". Newswise.com. 13 September 2012.
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10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Nadine Epstein, (2008), Uncle Xenon: The Element of Oliver Sacks *Moment Magazine*
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28. ↑ Sacks, O. (2014). Luria and "Romantic Science". In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (517-528). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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63. ↑ *The London Gazette*: (Supplement) no. 58729. p. 25. 14 June 2008.
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## External links

* Official website
* Oliver Sacks at DMOZ
* Oliver Sacks article archive at *The New York Review of Books*
* Oliver Sacks at TED
* Works by or about Oliver Sacks in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
* Oliver Sacks collected news and commentary at *The New York Times*
* Oliver Sacks at the Internet Movie Database
* Oliver Sacks's channel on YouTube
* Oliver Sacks on CNN in January 2011
* Oliver Sacks on *Science Friday*, National Public Radio

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 Alternative names
 Date of birth
 Place of birth
 Date of death
 Place of death