Remembering Oliver Sacks, A Pioneer Of Narrative Medicine

Hasn’t he brought us through the decades, guiding us stage by stage toward the present? Hasn’t he opened the way toward a health care loyal to the singular stories of those for whom we care? Hasn’t he opened the way toward a kind of writing loyal to the singular situation of those of whom we write? Dr. Oliver Sacks has been an always-present presence for the worlds of literature, medicine, narrative, and health. I certainly don’t know this world of ours without him in it. When he died, even though he had been so tender toward us in his gentle warnings that the end was near, I was shocked. It was as if one of the planets had been extinguished. Dr. Sacks developed an epistemology, not of knowledge alone but of an artist’s means of seeing. In Sacks, seeing became knowing, and knowing encompassed caring. The knowledge base was prodigious, not only of neurology but of musicology, literature, marine biology, and chemistry. He was smitten by the human brain and in his life lifted many forms of darkness from it. His avarice for experience drew knowledge to him, whether about hallucinogens, body building, or surfing off the California coast. I remember once inviting Dr. Sacks to a conversation with a group of medical students at Columbia University. This was early on, perhaps the mid-1980s. He was working at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Beth Abraham Hospital then, living on City Island in the Bronx. Having lived on the island myself during college and havi...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Featured Health Professionals Narrative Matters Quality City Island Columbia University narrative medicine Oliver Sacks Source Type: blogs