The River of Consciousness by Oliver Sacks review – an agility of enthusiasms

These posthumously published essays range from psychiatry to plagiarism to near-death experiencesOne March in the mid 1990s I checked into a cheap hotel in Helsinki. I dropped my bag on the floor and, wondering what Finnish daytime television was like, switched on the TV. A darkened room with a dining table came into focus, and around it were six people having a conversation. To my surprise, all were speaking English, then a face I knew filled the screen – it wasOliver Sacks. Then another,Stephen Jay Gould, and another,Daniel Dennett. I had books by all three. It was snowing outside, and Helsinki seemed suddenly less inviting; I sat down on the bed and began to watch.A Dutch TV company had assembled these men, together withFreeman Dyson,Stephen Toulmin andRupert Sheldrake, for the round-table finale of a documentary series on science and the meaning of life. The series,A Glorious Accident, didn ’t seem to have invited any women to take part but even so I watched it to the end – three hours later. The participants’ areas of expertise were diverse: biology, physics, palaeontology, neuroscience, philosophy. As the only practising clinician, Sacks made perceptive and valuable contributio ns – and was clearly having fun. I was just starting out in medicine, and it was a relief to see how a lifetime in clinical practice offered insights still relevant across the sciences.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Science and nature Essays Books Culture Psychology Neuroscience Oliver Sacks Source Type: news