Book Review: Gratitude by Dr. Oliver Sacks

By Karen B. KaplanReading Dr. Sacks ’ farewell book with its mournful black cover was like going through a typical day on the job as a hospice chaplain. Just like my patients, this famous author, well-known for his medical narratives such asThe Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales lists his regrets, his triumphs, his hopes, and his efforts to make sense of the life that he had led. In a word, this book is about how he dealt with his approaching end. Many of us can relate to his regrets, which included wasting time, being shy, and not traveling more. He also hoped to love and work as long as possible; again, much as the average person might yearn for in this circumstance. He also mentioned his regret at not having learned a second language.Finding out what he had to say about his own medical narrative may interest those who almost never hear about or think about what it means to review one ’s life as death nears, but for me I initially found that very predictable. Nevertheless, because he expresses it so eloquently, even as a jaded clinician, I became more and more captivated by his life review. More than that, reading this little book became a ritual means for me to say goodbye to this spectacular and compassionate doctor. For example he explains, “[As I get older] I begin to feel not a shrinking but an enlargement of mental life and perspective…One has seen triumphs and tragedies, booms and busts…One is more conscience of transienc...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - Category: Palliative Care Tags: book review gratitude karen Kaplan sachs Source Type: blogs