I picked up this book for First Son to read this year (eleventh grade) because he wanted a book about psychology. This book has more neurology than counseling in it, though, so I've told First Son he can read a bit and then decide whether he wants to continue.
Oliver Sacks is the author of the wonderful Uncle Tungsten and his lovely writing is as apparent here as there. He writes beautifully about his patients and their struggles, seeking always to see who they are and who they can be. He is open to the mysterious and the divine in his patients, even though he does not profess a traditional faith. One patient was unable to retain memories, but the nuns who ministered to the patients knew better. They invited Dr. Sacks to chapel.
I watched him kneel and take the Sacrament on his tongue, and could not doubt the fullness and totality of Communion, the perfect alignment of his spirit with the spirit of the Mass. Fully, intensely, quietly, in the quietude of absolute concentration and attention, he entered and partook of the Holy Communion. He was wholly held, absorbed, by a feeling.
The chapter on the visions of St. Hildegard is similarly open to the mystical possibilities, even while exploring her experiences from the perspective of a clinical psychologist.
Some diseases have symptoms or consequences best left for more mature readers, like "Cupid's Disease" in chapter 11. Another patient murdered his girlfriend while under the influence of PCP. These kinds of stories might be difficult to read.
It is likely many of the conditions described by Dr. Sacks are now treated differently, perhaps even have something more like cures, than they did in 1970 when this book was first published, or in 1985 when it was last updated, but the stories of these people and their struggles remain meaningful. Certainly some of the language is now out of date, but it is clear Dr. Sacks does not intend any disrespect.
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