Hallucinations

(Paperback, Large Print Edition)

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Description

Hallucinations don't belong wholly to the insane. Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness, or injury. People with migraines may see shimmering arcs of light or tiny, Lilliputian figures of animals and people. People with failing eyesight, paradoxically, may become

immersed in a hallucinatory visual world. Hallucinations can be brought on by a simple fever or even the act of waking or falling asleep, when people have visions ranging from luminous blobs of color to beautifully detailed faces or terrifying ogres. Those who are bereaved may receive comforting visits from the departed. In some conditions, hallucinations can lead to religious epiphanies or even the feeling of leaving one's own body.

Here, with his usual elegance, curiosity, and compassion, Dr. Sacks weaves together stories of his patients and of his own mind-altering experiences to illuminate what hallucinations tell us about the organization and structure of our brains, how they have influenced every culture's folklore and art, and why the potential for hallucination is present in us all, a vital part of the human condition.

Reviews

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

An Amazon.com Best Book [2012]

"Absorbing.... His compassion for his patients and his own philosophical outlook turn what might have been clinical case studies into humanely written short stories, animated as much by an intuitive appreciation of the human condition as by scientific understanding."
--Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times Book Review"

"[I]t is impossible not to get sucked in by the sheer enthusiasm with which he tackles his subject, the breadth of knowledge and research he brings to it, and the quirky charm he unleashes on nearly every page."
--"Toronto Star"

"Sacks triumphs. Not just in the clarity with which he teaches us about the obscure phenomenology of the human brain, but in the light his writing casts on even our most ordinary experiences."
--"The Telegraph" (4/5 stars)

"[Sacks is a] master at bridging the arts and the sciences.... Fascinating book.... Written with both grace and erudition, "Hallucinations" taps into the mysteries of the human brain in a way calculated to appeal to both the scientist and general reader with a questing mind."
--"The Gazette"

"Oliver Sacks is our greatest chronicler of people with unusual neurological and sensory disabilities and experiences."
--"The Globe and Mail
"
"With his trademark mix of evocative description, probing curiosity, and warm empathy, Sacks once again draws back the curtain on the mind's improbable workings."
"--Publishers Weekly "(starred review)

"Oliver Sacks...gets trippy."
"--Quill & Quire"
Praise for Oliver Sacks and "Hallucinations"
"Oliver Sacks is our greatest chronicler of people with unusual neurological and sensory disabilities and experiences."
--"The Globe and Mail
"
"With his trademark mix of evocative description, probing curiosity, and warm empathy, Sacks once again draws back the curtain on the mind's improbable workings."
"--Publishers Weekly "(starred review)

"Oliver Sacks...gets trippy."
"--Quill & Quire"

Author Bio

Oliver Sacks is a practicing physician and the author of 10 books, including "The Mind's Eye," "Musicophilia, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" and "Awakenings" (which inspired the Oscar-nominated film). He lives in New York City, where he is a professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and the first Columbia University Artist.