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> The contrast in Sacks's hobbies Though you wouldn't know if from TFA, Sacks was also a life-long enthusiast of mind-altering substances[0]. His 2012 Hallucin
by ttctciyf 2y ago
> The contrast in Sacks's hobbies
Though you wouldn't know if from TFA, Sacks was also a life-long enthusiast of mind-altering substances[0]. His 2012 Hallucinations[1] inquires into the etiology and social and phenomenal aspects of its subject by examining cases from his patients and from his own recreational episodes and is a completely fascinating read!
0: See, for example, https://www.npr.org/2020/09/21/915224016/neurologist-oliver-sacks-on-the-hallucination-that-saved-his-life https://www.npr.org/2020/09/21/915224016/neurologist-oliver-...
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinations_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinations_(book)
- quietbritishjim 2y agoTFA does say so: > During the following 10 years or so, Sacks took a prodigious amount of amphetamines and psychotropics – “every dose an overdose” – with one trip producing visions of the “neurological heavens” so intense it inspired him to write his first book, Migraine (1970). That time frame matches the NPR episode you cited: > One chapter, called "Altered States," described his own experiments with mind-altering drugs in the '60s when he was a neurology resident.
- ttctciyf 2y agoOops! Make that "though you wouldn't know it from hastily skimming TFA and a quick ctl-F on the wrong term in a misguided attempt to confirm your existing bias" then. Mea culpa! Hallucinations has quite a bit of info on Sacks' career as a psychonaut which progressed over several decades (iirc).