Oliver Sacks's Blog, page 2

An Unexpected Friendship with Oliver Sacks

Photo by Rosalie Winard

Q&A with Susan R. Barry, author of Dear Oliver: An Unexpected Friendship with Oliver Sacks.

Susan R. Barry is professor emerita of biological sciences and of neuroscience and behavior at Mount Holyoke College. She is the author of Fixing My Gaze: A Scientist’s Journey into Seeing in Three Dimensions and Coming to Our Senses. Her latest book, Dear Oliver, tells the intimate and inspiring story of her unexpected friendship with Oliver Sacks.

How did your friendship with Oliver Sacks begin?

I experienced a revelatory change in my vision. Severely cross-eyed since birth, I developed stereovision later in life—and I wanted to tell others about it. However, the change in my vision was considered impossible, so I didn’t think most scientists and physicians would believe me. Taking a chance, I composed a long letter to Oliver Sacks. He was intrigued and responded with questions of his own. I wrote back, which triggered another letter from him, and soon we found ourselves writing about everything from cells to brains to music.

Were you nervous to initially reach out to Oliver, and did you expect to receive a response?

Sometimes in life, you have to create your own opportunities, and this can incur risks. I hardly knew Oliver Sacks when I sent him my first letter. The letter was long–nine, typed, single-spaced pages—so I questioned whether he would read it to the end. I described my vision recovery story which challenged long-held scientific dogma, so I worried—Would he think me delusional? Even if he believed my story, would he understand just how revelatory the changes in my vision were to me? Or would he think me overly dramatic? I thought perhaps it was better to enjoy my new vision quietly and privately as I had done over the previous two years, but I sent the letter anyway, and it changed my life.

Has your correspondence with Oliver inspired how you communicate with others?

Oliver responded to all my letters with great thought and care, which made me feel heard and respected. After my first book, Fixing My Gaze, was published, I received emails from people all over the world, and I tried to answer their letters with the same care and thoughtfulness that Oliver had answered mine.

Which qualities of your friendship with Oliver made your bond so strong?

Friendships grow through sharing, and sharing leads to trust. When Oliver published my story, first in a New Yorker article and later in a book chapter, both titled “Stereo Sue,” he put great trust in me. By allowing him to tell and publicize my personal story, I put great trust in him. This sharing and trust laid the foundation for a deep friendship.

The subtitle to your book is “An Unexpected Friendship with Oliver Sacks.” What inspired you to use “unexpected” to describe your connection to him?

It was Oliver Sacks himself who described our friendship as “unexpected” in the last letter to me three weeks before he died. He wrote, “A deep and stimulating friendship with you has been a wonderful and unexpected addition to my life in these last ten years…”

Interview with Susan R. Barry, author of Dear Oliver: An Unexpected Friendship with Oliver Sacks (The Experiment, January 2024).

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Happy New Year!

We hope you’re all taking time to rest and connect with loved ones. The end of a year can be a time for reflection and gratitude, and we recently found a poignant inspiration for both in this Patti Davis piece on Sandra Day O’Connor and how she handled her husband’s battle with dementia. It’s about love and honesty and bravery in the face of a debilitating disease, and if you’re looking for a thoughtful and inspiring read we recommend it.

We also loved this article in AARP by Joe Colapinto that shares a series of anecdotes on how music affects the mind. The beautiful collection of stories includes one about Concetta Tomaino, who worked with Oliver Sacks at Beth Abraham Hospital in the Bronx.

If you’re looking for a slightly longer read, we always find Oliver’s Gratitude to be a beautiful text to revisit at the turn of the year. It’s the source of one of our favorite Oliver quotes:

“I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.

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.”

We hope, at the turn of the year, that no matter what is happening in your lives, your predominant feeling can be one of gratitude.

Cheers,

The Oliver Sacks Foundation Team

Header photo by @estee_wantstoread, via Instagram

The post Happy New Year! appeared first on Oliver Sacks | Official Website of Author, Neurologist & Foundation.

Happy almost-new-year!

Happy almost-new-year! We hope you’re all taking time to rest and connect with loved ones. The end of a year can be a time for reflection and gratitude, and we recently found a poignant inspiration for both in this Patti Davis’ piece on Sandra Day O’Connor and how she handled her husband’s battle with dementia. It’s a piece about love and honesty and bravery in the face of a debilitating disease, and if you’re looking for a thoughtful and inspiring read we recommend it.

We also loved this AARP piece by Joe Colapinto that shares a series of anecdotes on how music affects the mind. The beautiful collection of stories includes a piece on Concetta Tomaino, who worked with Oliver Sacks at Beth Abraham Hospital in the Bronx.

If you’re looking for a slightly longer read, we always find Oliver’s Gratitude to be a beautiful text to revisit at the turn of the year. It’s the source of one of our favorite Oliver quotes:

“I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.

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.”

We hope, at the turn of the year, that no matter what is happening in your lives, your predominant feeling can be one of gratitude.

Cheers,

The Oliver Sacks Foundation Team

The post Happy almost-new-year! appeared first on Oliver Sacks | Official Website of Author, Neurologist & Foundation.

NBC Orders Medical Drama Based on Life and Work of Oliver Sacks

We are excited to share that NBC has greenlit Dr. Wolf, a medical drama TV series inspired by the life and work of Oliver Sacks, with Star Trek’s set to star as the acclaimed neurologist and storyteller.

Inspired by The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, Dr. Wolf revolves around the larger-than-life neurologist, Oliver Wolf, and his team of interns as they explore the last great frontier — the human mind — while also grappling with their own relationships and mental health. Along with Quinto, the stellar cast includes , , , , , and .

penned the script and is the executive producer of the series alongside Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Leigh London Redman (Berlanti); Henrik Bastin, Melissa Aouate (Fabel); Andy Serkis, Jonathan Cavendish, Will Tennant (The Imaginarium); and DeMane Davis. It will be produced by Berlanti Productions, Fabel Entertainment and The Imaginarium in association with Warner Bros. Television and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.

We’ll keep you posted on updates about “Dr. Wolf,” as they become available.

Top image: Zachary Quinto as Dr. Oliver Wolf (Photo: Rafy/NBC)

A Beautiful Gift Edition of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat from Everyman’s Library.

This gorgeous hardcover edition of Dr. Sacks’s beloved book features an introduction from surgeon and writer, Atul Gawande. He says: “[Sacks] would see patients not as collections of deficits but as unique individuals… He captured their experiences, their hopes and fears, their humour and perseverance. It is heroic stuff, and he was well aware of its mythic resonances.”

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Follow along on social media and engage with fans around the world!

The post NBC Orders Medical Drama Based on Life and Work of Oliver Sacks appeared first on Oliver Sacks | Official Website of Author, Neurologist & Foundation.

NBC Orders Medical Drama Based on Life and Books by Oliver Sacks

We are excited to share that NBC has greenlit Dr. Wolf, a one-hour medical drama inspired by the life and work of Oliver Sacks, with Star Trek’s set to star as the acclaimed neurologist and storyteller.

Inspired by The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, Dr. Wolf revolves around the larger-than-life neurologist, Oliver Wolf, and his team of interns as they explore the last great frontier — the human mind — while also grappling with their own relationships and mental health. Along with Quinto, the stellar cast includes , , , , , and .

penned the script and is the executive producer of the series alongside Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Leigh London Redman (Berlanti); Henrik Bastin, Melissa Aouate (Fabel); Andy Serkis, Jonathan Cavendish, Will Tennant (The Imaginarium); and DeMane Davis. It will be produced by Berlanti Productions, Fabel Entertainment and The Imaginarium in association with Warner Bros. Television and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.

It’s unclear when exactly Dr. Wolf will air given the ongoing performers’ strike, but we will be sure to publicise the date as soon as we hear!

Top image: Zachary Quinto as Dr. Oliver Wolf (Photo: Rafy/NBC)

A Beautiful Gift Edition of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat from Everyman’s Library.

This gorgeous hardcover edition of Dr. Sacks’s beloved book features an introduction from surgeon and writer, Atul Gawande. He says: “[Sacks] would see patients not as collections of deficits but as unique individuals… He captured their experiences, their hopes and fears, their humour and perseverance. It is heroic stuff, and he was well aware of its mythic resonances.”

BUY BOOK

Sign up to our newsletter and be the first to hear about books, podcasts, films and events celebrating Oliver Sacks. 

SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTER

Follow along on social media and engage with fans around the world!

The post NBC Orders Medical Drama Based on Life and Books by Oliver Sacks appeared first on Oliver Sacks | Official Website of Author, Neurologist & Foundation.

A Beautiful Gift Edition of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

We’re thrilled to share that there’s a gorgeous new edition of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat out from Everyman’s Library. If you follow us on any social media platform you have likely already seen how lovely it is.

Everyman’s Library editions are printed on a fine cream-wove paper with sewn, full cloth bindings and silk ribbon markers. It’s a beautiful thing to hold (and a lovely gift idea!). They also include substantial introductions by major scholars and contemporary writers, and comparative chronologies of literary and historical context.

This edition of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat has a new introduction from surgeon and writer Atul Gawande, the author of Being Mortal. Gawande describes his personal relationship with Oliver and how they showed each other their manuscripts in progress. And he writes eloquently about the way Oliver saw his patients as individual human beings rather than a list of symptoms or a puzzle to solve. He says:

“In his brief introductions to each of the four parts of this book, he lays out a sort of manifesto that he would continue to refine throughout his life: that he would see patients not as collections of deficits but as unique individuals, often bravely living with and adapting to neurological conditions which were unimaginable for the rest of us. He captured their experiences, their hopes and fears, their humor and perseverance. It is heroic stuff, and he was well aware of its mythic resonances.”

We hope you enjoy this new edition of Oliver’s work. Please feel free to email us at any time to share your thoughts – we love hearing from you.

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The post A Beautiful Gift Edition of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat appeared first on Oliver Sacks | Official Website of Author, Neurologist & Foundation.

Awakenings Recording Now Available

The world premiere recording of Tobias Picker and Aryeh Lev Stollman’s opera, Awakenings, is now available to stream on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Music.

Set in a Bronx hospital in the late 1960s, Tobias Picker’s Awakenings tells the true story of neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks, who received worldwide acclaim for awakening survivors of the “sleeping-sickness” epidemic of the 1920s from their decades-long, frozen-like state with the drug L-DOPA.

Probing into the themes originally explored by Sacks’s groundbreaking book, this sensitive operatic adaptation is the first to accurately portray Oliver Sacks as a shy gay man struggling with his sexuality.

Baritone Jarrett Porter plays the lead role of Dr. Oliver Sacks, alongside a cast including sopranos Joyce El-Khoury and Adrienne Danrich, accompanied by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and Odyssey Opera. Conducted by Gil Rose.

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Remembering Oliver Sacks

Today we remember Oliver Sacks. A naturalist, a writer, a psychonaut, but first and foremost a physician and explorer of the human condition. July 9, 1933 – August 30, 2015.

In this clip from a lecture he gave at Vanderbilt University in 1999, he talks about how many different “ways of being” there are.

Transcribed here: “There is no standard way of being, or knowing, or perceiving. Although one has to talk about normality or mean or average or deviation or standard deviations in a sort of statistical sense, in the biological sense, variation is of the essence. There are an infinite number of ways of being and doing and knowing and remembering. And there are an infinite number of ways of being healthy. And I think health needs to be defined in terms of identity and singularity not in terms of some normative judgement.”

Feedback from social media followers

“Inspiring words from Oliver Sacks on the multiplicity of ways to exist and to perceive.”

“The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” is the reason why I (and I suspect many of you) are here #ScienceTwitter.”

“I believe this and have seen it. Now I’d like to help make a society that allows for and encourages neurodiversity.”

“It’s incredible how he was able to summarize in a few words the extremely complex debate between medicine, statistics, neuroscience and philosophy of the last 200 years. Truly a phenomenal person.”

The post Remembering Oliver Sacks appeared first on Oliver Sacks | Official Website of Author, Neurologist & Foundation.

“Meeting” Oliver Sacks (And Happy Birthday)

July 9 would have been Oliver Sacks’s 90th birthday, and as readers of Uncle Tungsten might know, element 90 is thorium, named after the Norse god of thunder. Oliver would have been especially pleased, since thorium oxide is an important substance for gas mantles, which were once used to light the streets of London and around the world.

What better way to celebrate Oliver’s 90th than to listen to his unique voice in our podcast, Radiant Minds? The remembrance below was written by Abi Inman, the Oliver Sacks Foundation’s Social Media Manager and Archival Producer for the podcast.

Enjoy!

The Sacks Team

I spent seven months of COVID lockdown with most of the space in my tiny Brooklyn bedroom taken up by VHS and audio cassette recordings of neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks. Some of them were public lectures or interviews, but others were rarer finds. His audio diary tapes for example, or behind-the-scenes footage of him and Robin Williams on the set of Awakenings. The tapes had been pulled from boxes deep in storage units, found in the backs of closets, retrieved from dusty containers.

Part of my role as Archival Producer for the Audible podcast “Radiant Minds: The World of Oliver Sacks,” involved combing through these tapes for anything we could use to tell the story of Oliver’s life, or those of his patients.

The quick blurb of what Oliver is most famous for doesn’t capture even a hundredth of who he was. It’s hard to give a sense of it without resorting to lists; Oliver Sacks was a neurologist and a writer, but also a record-setting bodybuilder, a botanist, a psychonaut who experimented with shocking amounts of amphetamines and hallucinogens. He was a gay man who spent most of his life celibate and even more of it closeted. He was friends with Björk. He rode motorcycles with the Hell’s Angels.

For me, the daughter of two biologists, Oliver Sacks was a household name even as a child, so I approached the archival work with an almost religious reverence. I spent countless hours listening to Oliver talk, rewinding and listening again, taking notes, on occasion crying. (I think every scientific field has the potential for incredible pathos, but perhaps none more so than neurology.)

I also digitized the tapes, some of which had never been published or shared in any form. As a millenial accustomed to backup hard drives and cloud storage, being the steward for the only existing copies of some of the recordings made me incredibly anxious. I’d digitize them, and feel a bit of relief with each one – one more talk Oliver had given, or thought he’d had, that was safe from the entropy of analog storage.

Over the course of months I developed a unique, one-way-street of a connection with Oliver Sacks. In the isolation of quarantine it was rare to meet new people, and even rarer to get to know them at the level that I was getting to know Oliver.

Watching decades-old lectures, I started to notice the same jokes he would tell over and over again, sure to get a laugh from each new audience. I learned the nuances of his rhotacism (difficulty pronouncing the letter “r”). I recognized the little self-soothing habits of an introvert in the spotlight. In his personal recordings I heard him describe nightmares he had just woken up from, talk through existential crises, consider whether or not to take a bath.

A lot of this personal and emotional material ended up in the podcast, which in many ways gives a better sense of Oliver the person than even his own books can. The host, neuroscientist and opera director Indre Viskontas, interviews many of Oliver’s friends and colleagues. You hear from Tony Cicoria, the man struck by lightning featured in Musicophilia, and from Witty Ticcy Ray, whom Oliver wrote about in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Josh Groban shares what it was like to meet Oliver for the first time, and Lowell Handler talks about how Oliver changed his life. On top of all that, you hear Oliver’s own voice in his recordings, the ones I spent so long picking through. There’s something so personal about having someone’s voice in your ear. You can feel Oliver’s incredible empathy as well as his brilliance. He has a disarming playfulness that doesn’t always come across in his writing, but you can hear it in his voice.

I started working with the Oliver Sacks Foundation in 2018, three years after Oliver died of cancer.

I was in frequent communication with his partner Bill Hayes and his closest friend and collaborator Kate Edgar. Through them I felt that I knew him, to the point that using the more traditionally correct “Sacks” in this article seemed strange and stilted. To them he is “Oliver,” so to me he is now “Oliver.” I’ve been inside his home. I’ve held his wallet, and seen the miniature periodic table he kept in the place most people would store an ID. Throughout all of my work on his legacy there has been the sensation of walking into a room that someone has just left.

As Oliver himself said, “When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate — the genetic and neural fate — of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.”

I will never meet Oliver Sacks in real life, but I’ve met him in the same place we are all lucky enough to be able to meet him – in his incredible body of work, in the many books he wrote, in the talks he gave. I’m grateful to have been part of a project that will help more people find him there.

If you haven’t had the chance to listen to the podcast yet, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

LISTEN NOW

Main photo: Oliver Sacks in 2001, by Andrea Mohin for The New York Times

The post “Meeting” Oliver Sacks (And Happy Birthday) appeared first on Oliver Sacks | Official Website of Author, Neurologist & Foundation.

Dementia: Unexpected Stories of the Mind

Oliver Sacks’s closest friend and schoolmate Jonathan Miller died of dementia in 2019. The photo above shows them together in New York City. In a new five-part series from BBC Sounds, William Miller, Jonathan Miller’s son, and neurologist Jules Montague go into the homes of people with rare dementias, to discover that dementia is not what we think it is.

It’s a common misconception that dementia is a condition that only affects memory – but Alzheimer’s is only one form of dementia, there are many more. Because the symptoms of rare dementias can be so atypical, often in younger people, those with rare dementias wait twice as long for a diagnosis and a third are initially misdiagnosed.

The symptoms of these dementias go far beyond memory loss. William and Jules meet a man who hallucinates cats and rabbits in his living room, a novelist who is losing her words, a former teacher who cannot see what’s right in front of her, and a family struggling with a genetic legacy that has defined their past and could determine their future.

Dr Jules Montague is a dementia specialist, and William has personal experience of its impact having cared for his father, theatre director Jonathan Miller, who died of Alzheimer’s in 2019. Together they explore the science behind the symptoms and the poignant and extraordinary ways in which families navigate their lives as a result of these conditions.

In the first episode, released 10 April 2023, they meet Geraint and his wife Jacqui. In 2020 Geraint received a diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia – or FTD – which results in a profound transformation in behaviour and personal identity.

STREAM THE SERIES NOW

Details of organisations offering information and support with dementia are available at the BBC Action Line here.

Producer: Eve Streeter
Original music: A Brief Encounter by Max Walter
A Raconteur production for BBC Radio 4

Photo of Oliver Sacks and Jonathan Miller by Tom Miller.

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