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This book was very interesting as long as the author was describing his situation; but he developed his whole experience into a new neurological course of study with discussions and references to other scientists which I was just not interested in. I skipped the last few pages and yet I recognize that important things were discovered about the patient and the patient doctor relationship which had previously been totally overlooked. So the book is an IMPORTANT book but it was not really aimed at me. Also, I had never had an experience like his even remotely. I was attracted to the book by the idea of a DOCTOR having the same experiences as a patient and learning from that experience. But I had never had that experience and what he learned was above my level of expertise. I think I expected something more homey. I had not known anything about the author ahead of time except he was a doctor. I'm thinking in my head "family physician, or general surgeon". So if YOU are the RIGHT audience (student of medicine?, neurologist?, or philosopher?,) this might be the book for you.
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I've read several of Sacks' books and have learned much. I dont know how I have gone all these years without reading this one. His description of his experience is compelling and has started me on an investigation of Kant's ideas.
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A book written by Dr. Oliver Sacks about himself. Who would imagine this wonderful doctor being injured by a bull! He describes his experience as a patient in wonderful detail! And the things he learned while on the other end of the stethoscope!
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84 of 86 people found the following review helpful
Sacks has made his reputation by writing insightfully about his patients and their neurological disorders. Most readers will come to this book after having read one of his better known collections, such as "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat", though in fact I believe this precedes all of them except "Awakenings". "A Leg to Stand On" has much in common with those books, but it is much more personal, and it tells a unified story. The first chapter, "The Mountain", tells how Sacks suffered a terrible injury to his left leg while hiking high above Hardanger Fjord in Norway. He was alone, and nobody knew where he was; he would certainly die of exposure if he didn't reach help by nightfall. The chapter is as gripping as anything in a thriller, and much more believable. The next chapter, however, "Becoming A Patient", is the one that will give readers of Sacks' other work a frisson of recognition. Many times Sacks has taken the reader through the doctor-patient relationship from the doctor's side, but now he must experience it from the patient's side, and it is a revealing chapter. It ends with an extraordinary transition: Sacks has realized that he has a neurological problem with his leg--he can't "locate" it; it feels like it's made of wood--but the surgeon who operated on him refuses, point-blank, to accept that there is a problem. The remainder of the book--about half--is devoted to the path to Sacks' ultimate recovery. Sacks has deep powers of observation, and there are luminously informative sequences here--my favourite is perhaps the exchange with the physiotherapists, when they are trying to show him how to walk, but he has forgotten how.Read more ›
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Sacks brilliantly chronicles his experiences as a neurological patient. His experience came from a mountain climbing expedition, where he totally broke a leg and severed or damaged the femoral nerve in his leg. This book is his story of recovery from that intense and serious accident.
What Sacks concentrates on in his story are the feelings of patients, particularly his own, who have serious neurological problems and how those feelings translate to the condition itself, or the condition translates to the feelings. His most significant commentary has to do with the feelings regarding the disassociation with the affected body part. One starts to feel that it is foreign, no longer a natural part of the body. And, that it no longer exists and will never again exist to the patient.
In addition, he carefully points out the non-recognition of these patient feelings by his Neurologist who sees himself more as a fixer of mechanical problems with the body, rather than a Dr. treating a real live human being with feelings of alienation of the limb and alienation from society. Sacks writing style is sophisticate and beautiful, a rare combination for a doctor, but he achieves it like always with exquisite aplomb. The book is highly recommended for all readers interested in physical recovery, especially those who have had a significant neurological problem.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
I should stress from the start that this book is extremely well written. It requires a special talent to combine scientific, clinical prose with personal, emotional and philosophical insight. This book is remarkable on many counts, but its value lies in Sacks' honesty, uninhibited rendering of the personal, by and while incorporating his desire to see his profession, neurology and psycho neurology, evolve from a largely `veterinary business", the dualistic approach to the mind as `mental' or `physical', to a science combining both approaches, in what he would like to call the "neurology of identity". In his terms, he would like to see neurology take "a great jump - to jump from the mechanical model, the "classical" model, it has espoused for so long, to a totally personal, self-referential model of the brain and mind". (p.189) This text eloquently strives in this direction. In the early seventies, Sacks experienced a hiking accident that severely damaged his left leg. This near death experience (he was stranded alone on a mountain miles away from civilization) began a journey of a profound personal nature, existential, professional, philosophical, spiritual and physical, which changed his views about many things. The first chapter, `The Mountain', has all the suspense and narrative style of a well-written thriller. To a large extent, in the next chapter, "Becoming a Patient", has all the hallmarks of the familiar insensitive doctor as mere technician, evolving a more empathetic view of the patient, developing that essential `bedside manner' that can be so lacking, though essential, in the medical profession.Read more ›
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