4 ms·

I'm surprised to see no mention of Sacks' mental state at the time. The gloss seems a little too upbeat. He was clearly unhappy in his late 20s and early 30s.

I'm surprised to see no mention of Sacks' mental state at the time. The gloss seems a little too upbeat. He was clearly unhappy in his late 20s and early 30s. Despondent at Oxford, he spent a summer in Israel working on a Kibbutz. After finishing his medical degree, he travelled across Canada and tried to joint the Canadian Air Force as a pilot. When he began working in San Francisco, he was drawn to obsessive weightlifting. He also began to regularly consume copious amounts of hallucinogenic drugs, and briefly joined Hell's Angels. Sacks says that things only fell into place when he began writing.

vsef 7y ago
Also not mentioned: He was a gay man, which he never seemingly really came to terms with after coming out to his father at 18 and then being unwillingly outed to his mother who declared him an "abomination", and it clearly fucked him up. He remained celibate for decades and never directly addressed the issue until his memoir written/released when he had terminal cancer. It's hard not to think of his interest in weightlifting as related to his internal conflicts over gayness and masculinity. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/31/the-tragic-story-of-oliver-sackss-celibacy-and-homosexuality/?utm_term=.2258d109e9d8 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/3... And not mentioned: He also had some serious lasting physical problems from weightlifting, as did other of his competitive weightlifting friends: https://medium.com/the-polymath-project/oliver-sacks-on-how-our-hobbies-can-kill-us-2342f95c08 https://medium.com/the-polymath-project/oliver-sacks-on-how-... I am an avid weightlifter, I think its really great and overall healthy, but the linked article paints a rosy picture of something more complicated for Sacks.
- rv-de 7y ago
  Oliver Sachs being mentioned always strikes my attention since having a read a couple of books by him. I was not aware though of his troubled past. Makes him more relatable in some way. Also brings this article into perspective. For all the positives that come with lifting weights (of what ever kind) it is obvious that most of the time it is born out of a desire to compensate a perceived shortcoming.

vsef 7y ago

Also not mentioned: He was a gay man, which he never seemingly really came to terms with after coming out to his father at 18 and then being unwillingly outed to his mother who declared him an "abomination", and it clearly fucked him up. He remained celibate for decades and never directly addressed the issue until his memoir written/released when he had terminal cancer. It's hard not to think of his interest in weightlifting as related to his internal conflicts over gayness and masculinity. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/31/the-tragic-story-of-oliver-sackss-celibacy-and-homosexuality/?utm_term=.2258d109e9d8 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/3... And not mentioned: He also had some serious lasting physical problems from weightlifting, as did other of his competitive weightlifting friends: https://medium.com/the-polymath-project/oliver-sacks-on-how-our-hobbies-can-kill-us-2342f95c08 https://medium.com/the-polymath-project/oliver-sacks-on-how-... I am an avid weightlifter, I think its really great and overall healthy, but the linked article paints a rosy picture of something more complicated for Sacks.

rv-de 7y ago
Oliver Sachs being mentioned always strikes my attention since having a read a couple of books by him. I was not aware though of his troubled past. Makes him more relatable in some way. Also brings this article into perspective. For all the positives that come with lifting weights (of what ever kind) it is obvious that most of the time it is born out of a desire to compensate a perceived shortcoming.