Oliver Sacks Orden de los libros (cronológico)

The letters of one of the greatest observers of the human species, revealing his passion for life and work, friendship and art, medicine and society, and the richness of his relationships with friends, family, and fellow intellectuals over the decades, collected here for the first time.

"In this final volume, Oliver Sacks examines the many passions of his own life, as a doctor engaged with the central questions of human existence, and as a polymath conversant in all the sciences. Everything in Its Place brings together writings--many never before published--on a rich variety of topics. Why do humans need gardens? How, and when, does a physician tell his patient she has Alzheimer's? What is social media doing to our brains? In several of the compassionate case histories included here, Sacks considers the enigmas of depression, psychosis, and schizophrenia for the first time, and in others he returns to conditions that have long fascinated him: Tourette's syndrome, aging, dementia, and hallucinations. In counterpoint to these elegant investigations of what makes us human, this volume also includes pieces that celebrate Sacks's love of the natural world--and his final meditations on life in the twenty-first-century. Everything in Its Place gives us an intimate portrait of a master writer and thinker at work."--Dust jacket.

The River of Consciousness is a remarkable culmination of a lifetime's research into the way the brain works by the celebrated late neurologist Oliver Sacks.

A híres angol neurológus esettörténeteiből a testi-szellemi fogyatékossággal küszködő emberek belső világáról kaphatnak képet az olvasók. Ezek az emberek - mi- közben valamilyen téren súlyosan károsodtak - olykor különleges képességekkel rendelkeznek, nemegyszer többet tudnak a világról, mint egészséges társaik. A történetek olvasói előtt feltárul az emberi természet gazdagsága, és az a lehetőség, hogy más szemmel tekintsenek fogyatékos társaikra.

Los lectores conocen a Oliver Sacks por sus fascinantes libros sobre los misterios de la mente a partir de asombrosos casos psiquiátricos. Ahora, aplica su perspicacia y humanismo a su propia vida, ofreciendo un ejercicio de introspección que revela una peripecia vital intensa y compleja. Relata su marcha de Inglaterra y llegada a Estados Unidos, su confesión de homosexualidad a su madre y su reacción, así como su relación con su hermano esquizofrénico. Comparte su primera experiencia sexual en Ámsterdam, su última relación sexual al cumplir cuarenta y su posterior celibato voluntario. Reflexiona sobre el sexo y el amor como motores de la vida, sus inicios como psiquiatra en los años sesenta y sus investigaciones sobre una enfermedad olvidada, así como sus intensas relaciones con pacientes y su abuso de anfetaminas. También menciona su amistad con poetas como Auden y Thom Gunn, y su fugaz relación con figuras como Robert De Niro y Robin Williams. Habla de su afición a las motos y viajes nocturnos por el desierto de California, así como su interés en la halterofilia, el culturismo y la natación. En suma, es una autobiografía emocionante y desgarradamente honesta que refleja su aventura intelectual.

Oliver Sacks died in August 2015 at his home in Greenwich Village, surrounded by his close friends and family. He was 82. He spent his final days doing what he loved: playing the piano, swimming, enjoying smoked salmon - and writing. As Dr Sacks looked back over his long, adventurous life his final thoughts were of gratitude. In a series of remarkable, beautifully written and uplifting meditations, in Gratitude Dr Sacks reflects on and gives thanks for a life well lived, and expresses his thoughts on growing old, facing terminal cancer and reaching the end. 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 travelled 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.

Why do people have near-death experiences? Are there physical explanations for out-of-body sensations and tunnels of light? What about moments of spiritual ecstasy? In this exploration, a neurologist with three decades of experience examines the biology behind human spirituality, deconstructing the spiritual self and uncovering its origins in primitive areas of the brain. Through revolutionary studies on near-death experiences, it is revealed that spiritual experiences are incidental products of various neurological processes acting independently. When we feel close to God or sense the presence of departed relatives, we may believe we are standing at the border of this world and the next. However, the reality is different: our brain function resembles a Cubist painting, and the experiences we consider the height of humanity are produced by primal reflexes. This journey into the borderlands of consciousness offers a comprehensive, empirically-tested, peer-reviewed examination of our capacity for near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, and mystical states induced by hallucinogenic drugs.

Drawing on a wealth of clinical examples from his own patients as well as historical and literary descriptions, Oliver Sacks investigates the fundamental differences and similarities of many sorts of hallucinations.