Oliver Sacks
From Psy3241
Contents |
Childhood
Oliver Wolf Sacks is a United States based neurologist who was born in London on July 9th, 1933
to a very prosperous Jewish medical family. At age 6, Sacks’ parents sent him to a boarding
school for 4 years in the Midlands where he was to be protected from World War 2. In this time,
Sacks lived with his uncle Dave and developed an interest in chemistry. This is the time period
that Sacks’ memoir Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood reflects on.
Study of Medicine and Neurology
Oliver Sacks went on to obtain his medical degrees from Oxford University. In 1960, Sacks went on
vacation in Canada and decided to stay. Sacks hitch-hiked through the Rocky Mountains and ended
up in San Francisco, eventually moving to Los Angeles where he completed his residency in
neurology at UCLA. Then Sacks moved to the Bronx in New York where he still lives and helps
people with their neurological disorders.
Formerly, Sacks was a professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and an
adjunct professor at the New York School of Medicine for over 43 years. Recently, on September 1,
2007, Sacks became a professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry at the Columbia
University College of Physicians and Surgeons. To this day, Sacks is still a consultant
neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor organization and continues to practice neurology in
New York City.
Books by Sacks
Oliver Sacks has a way of writing about neuropsychological disorders in layman’s terms. Sacks
uses very little clinical terms in his writing, and focuses on the experiences of the patient and
how they adapt to their disorder. By telling a story of a particular patient who exemplifies a
particular disorder, Sacks has a talent of grabbing the attention of the reader and introducing
them into a world unfamiliar to their way of life. The following are books written by Oliver Sacks
MIGRAINE (1970- revised 1992)
AWAKENINGS (1973- revised 1990)
A LEG TO STAND ON (1984)
THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT (1985)
SEEING VOICES (1989)
AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS (1995)
THE ISLAND OF THE COLORBLIND (1997)
UNCLE TUNGSTEN: MEMORIES OF A CHEMICAL BOYHOOD (2001)
OAXACA JOURNAL (2002)
MUSICOPHILIA: TALES OF MUSIC AND THE BRAIN (2007)
All of the books by Sacks are documents of his professional work in the field of neurology. He
has written from his point of view as the patient in the memoir Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a
Chemical Boyhood (2001), as well as the neurologist helping the various and interesting patients
he encounters. Additionally, Oliver Sacks also has many published essays and articles on various
neuropsychology topics aswell as a television series called The Mind Traveler.
