No one wants to be sick. The fear surrounding illness whether it be physical or mental can throw people into a panic: inspiring them to scroll endlessly on WebMD or in other cases close their eyes and ears completely. Death and disease are often categorized as the ugly parts of life, meant to be hidden from the public eye until eventually they rear their heads and force people to reckon with them. Tasked with understanding and treating disease, the medical community works to balance public anxiety and understanding, all while trying to get their jobs done. Neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks turned this balancing act into an artform. Inspired by his own forays with psychedelia, Sacks embedded his clinical practice with radical compassion and through his writings showed the world the value of consciousness.
Early Life
Born in 1933 London to a family of renowned physicians, Oliver was destined for the medical profession before he was out of diapers. Though his family’s wealth provided opportunities for him, Oliver’s boyhood was not free from strife. During the bombings of WWII, Oliver and his brother Michael were sent to a boarding school in the countryside. Whilst away, the two experienced trauma that triggered Michael’s psychosis, eventually leading to a schizophrenia diagnosis. Witnessing his brother’s struggles with schizophrenia cultivated a great empathy in Oliver. An empathy that allowed him to value and desire understanding for people who’s inner worlds did not fit into the outer world of others. His parent’s reactions of shame and secrecy did not fit into what Oliver witnessed as Michael’s earnest suffering. In order to cope with the chaos around him he threw himself into science, eventually graduating and attending medical school at Oxford. His specialty? Neurology.
Neurology
Neurology is the study of the brain and nervous system. Nuerologist’s work to diagnose and treat neurological disorders ranging from migraines to Parkinson’s disease. Simply put, neurologists try to figure out what’s going on in the brain and nervous system that causes patients to exhibit certain behaviors. The brain and nervous system run the show: controlling thought, emotion, memory, regulatory processes and creating the experience of consciousness.
Philosophers and neurologists have long debated the definition and origins of consciousness. Loosely it is the awareness of the internal and external world. Everyone experiences consciousness differently as it relies on the unique interplay of an individual’s inner world and their awareness of the world around them. Oliver Sack’s empathy and understanding for his brother set him up to value his patient’s consciousness even when it did not fit into societal standards of normalcy.
Oliver’s fascination with the juxtaposition of people’s inner and outer worlds may have been helpful for his bedside manner but it did not garner him the respect of his colleagues. Throughout his education, Oliver’s boisterous personality and lack of organization made him butt heads with his advisors and marked the beginnings of Oliver’s lifelong struggle for respect from his peers.
Upon graduating, Oliver moved to San Francisco and began his medical fellowship at Mt Zion Hospital. The counterculture movement of the 1960s provided a backdrop for Oliver’s explorations of substances, sexuality and the human condition, allowing him to further cultivate his empathy for others.
Hallucinations
While living in California, Oliver began regularly partaking in recreational use of psychedelics, namely LSD and amphetamines. Though he admitted in his 2012 book Hallucinations that his motivations were not purely educational, his experiences hallucinating on psychedelic substances informed his professional life.
When his patients discussed witnessing swirling geometric patterns while in the throes of a migraine, Oliver not only understood but could visualize with them because of his hallucinogenic experiences. His mind expanding trips, though intended recreationally, allowed him to imagine the unimaginable. When immobile patients with neurological disorders described extraordinary sensory experiences Oliver understood the richness of neurological reactions invisible to the naked eye.
Apart from his first hand experiences hallucinating, his struggles with substance use and his sexuality bolstered his ability to empathize with ostracized groups. Living his life as a gay man familiraized him with the cruelty and lack of understanding some people hold towards marginalized groups. In the PBS documentary Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, an aged Oliver describes his mother’s reaction to his coming out: angrily telling him he was an abomination and pushing him to leave London for the more welcoming San Francisco. He knew what it felt like to be pushed out of a loving home based on unchangeable circumstances,
Some of his patients lived the majority of their lives in medical institutions, pushed away and forgotten because of neurological disorders that made them challenging to relate to. Oliver cared deeply for his patients and worked to treat each individual person, not just their diagnosis. He valued the conscious experience of people regardless of their ability to contribute to society or communicate their lived experience. His curiosity and compassion, earned through the hardships in his own life, prepared him for his greatest contributions to the world of neurology: his writing.
Empathy and Storytelling
Throughout his medical career, Oliver kept detailed notes about his patient often turning his case notes into stories. Though some of his peers saw his storytelling as exploitative, his intention was to share the stories of bravery, survival and hope that would have otherwise gone unseen by the general public.
Awakenings
In 1966, Oliver began working as the onsight neurologist for Beth Abraham Hospital. A large faction of his patients suffered from the lingering effects of sleepy sickness, a degenerative neurological disorder brought on by viral encephalitis during the 1920s. He felt for the people trapped inside their comatose bodies, seeing their humanity and sentience though they could not express it to him. After noticing some patients exhibiting random movement, Oliver decided to try administering the experimental Parkinson’s drug L-Dopa. The medication initially freed the patients from their comatose states but eventually the side effects proved too negative and slowly the people returned to their states of sleep.
Heartbroken but inspired by bearing witness to this medical miracle and tragedy, Oliver wrote his 1973 book Awakenings. By documenting the experiences of his patients at Beth Abraham, Oliver gave them a legacy outside of the hospital walls they were forced to spend their lives in.
Legacy
Over the following decades, Oliver continued to work with patients, documenting their triumphs and hardships in his writing. By taking the dark continents of illness and highlighting the stories of transcendence and survival, Oliver showed his readers the value of neurodivergent experience. It can be challenging to understand and empathize with people who’s neurological functioning hinders them from communicating. Oliver translated his own reverence for consciousness and his patients’ lived experience into his writings and invited his readers to connect alongside him. Oliver’s case studies and books inspired others to adapt his stories into movies and plays, taking these stories out of a sterile medical environment into a more human one.
The power of storytelling connects people by allowing them to look inside someone else’s experience: what does it feel like to be them? Oliver Sack’s writings translated the conscious experiences of patients who otherwise would have been forgotten. His radical empathy and desire to connect show the world the power of a kind and curious heart.
Did you know that Oliver Sacks used psychedelics? Let us know what you think about his life and work in the comments below.
