A Leg to Stand on

I must be on a compassion kick. I picked up this book expecting to learn more neuro, but what I got instead is a view of the road to Enlightenment. Oliver Sacks, already an MD but not yet in the field we know him for, is badly injured. During his recovery he experiences an eerie loss of proprioception, of the sense of whole body. OK, nothing really new there – that wasn't well documented in 1980, but it certainly is now.

What really captured me, though, was his feelings as he tried–and failed–to be understood by his nurses and doctors. Confusion, frustration, fear, understanding, ... acceptance and understanding. Doctor as Patient, a new perspective. Rather than put it behind him, he uses it to create the Oliver Sacks we know today. It is clear that this experience shaped him, not just his interest in neuropathologies but especially his ability to understand his patients, to empathize, and then to communicate that in his later books.

A Leg to Stand On is not easy reading: his prose is dense, awkward, not yet a mature voice. Despite that, this is a book worth reading (but not as your first Oliver Sacks book. Read 1-2 others first).