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A Leg to Stand On

Author Oliver Sacks
Ebook
Knopf | Vintage
On sale Sep 29, 2020 | 256 Pages | 9780593311011
Grades AP/IB
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From the bestselling author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat • Here the doctor becomes the patient as Dr. Sacks chronicles the mountaineering accident which left him with the uncanny feeling of being "legless," and raises profound questions of the physical basis of identity.

"One of the great clinical writers of the 20th century." —The New York Times Book Review

In A Leg to Stand On, it is Sacks himself who is the patient: an encounter with a bull on a desolate mountain in Norway has left him with a severely damaged leg. But what should be a routine recuperation is actually the beginning of a strange medical journey when he finds that his leg uncannily no longer feels like part of his body. Sacks’s brilliant description of his crisis and eventual recovery is not only an illuminating examination of the experience of patienthood and the inner nature of illness and health but also a fascinating exploration of the physical basis of identity. 

This 1984 classic is now available in an expanded edition with a new foreword, written by Kate Edgar, executive director of the Oliver Sacks Foundation.
© Adam Scourfield
OLIVER SACKS, referred by the New York Times as “the poet laureate of medicine,” spent more than fifty years working as a neurologist and writing books about the neurological predicaments and conditions of his patients, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia, and Awakenings. His work was frequently published in The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, and over the years, he received many awards, including honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal College of Physicians. View titles by Oliver Sacks
“A neurologist in [the] great tradition. . . . A story about the nature of selfhood—a narrative comparable to Conrad’s ‘The Secret Sharer.’”
—Jerome Bruner, The New York Review of Books

“In calling for a ‘neurology of the soul’ and a ‘deeper and more humane medicine,’ Sacks’s remarkable book raises issues of profound importance for everyone interested in health care and the humane application of science.”
—The Washington Post
 
“Superb . . . Dr. Sacks tells the story of an extraordinary experience . . . that brought him not merely near death but in an intimate tango with it danced to the sound of life itself.”
—Maria Popova, Brain Pickings
 
“In this extraordinary book, Sacks chronicles his own journey from traumatic injury to health. By so doing, he built a bridge of understanding between himself and his patients that became the foundation of what he called ‘a new and deeper medicine.’”
—Steve Silberman, author, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

About

From the bestselling author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat • Here the doctor becomes the patient as Dr. Sacks chronicles the mountaineering accident which left him with the uncanny feeling of being "legless," and raises profound questions of the physical basis of identity.

"One of the great clinical writers of the 20th century." —The New York Times Book Review

In A Leg to Stand On, it is Sacks himself who is the patient: an encounter with a bull on a desolate mountain in Norway has left him with a severely damaged leg. But what should be a routine recuperation is actually the beginning of a strange medical journey when he finds that his leg uncannily no longer feels like part of his body. Sacks’s brilliant description of his crisis and eventual recovery is not only an illuminating examination of the experience of patienthood and the inner nature of illness and health but also a fascinating exploration of the physical basis of identity. 

This 1984 classic is now available in an expanded edition with a new foreword, written by Kate Edgar, executive director of the Oliver Sacks Foundation.

Author

© Adam Scourfield
OLIVER SACKS, referred by the New York Times as “the poet laureate of medicine,” spent more than fifty years working as a neurologist and writing books about the neurological predicaments and conditions of his patients, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia, and Awakenings. His work was frequently published in The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, and over the years, he received many awards, including honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal College of Physicians. View titles by Oliver Sacks

Praise

“A neurologist in [the] great tradition. . . . A story about the nature of selfhood—a narrative comparable to Conrad’s ‘The Secret Sharer.’”
—Jerome Bruner, The New York Review of Books

“In calling for a ‘neurology of the soul’ and a ‘deeper and more humane medicine,’ Sacks’s remarkable book raises issues of profound importance for everyone interested in health care and the humane application of science.”
—The Washington Post
 
“Superb . . . Dr. Sacks tells the story of an extraordinary experience . . . that brought him not merely near death but in an intimate tango with it danced to the sound of life itself.”
—Maria Popova, Brain Pickings
 
“In this extraordinary book, Sacks chronicles his own journey from traumatic injury to health. By so doing, he built a bridge of understanding between himself and his patients that became the foundation of what he called ‘a new and deeper medicine.’”
—Steve Silberman, author, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

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