Oliver Sacks, 1933-2015

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richie
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30 Aug 2015, 4:46 pm

Oliver Sacks Dies at 82; Neurologist and Author Explored the Brain’s Quirks

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Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and acclaimed author who explored some of the brain’s strangest pathways in best-selling case histories like “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” using his patients’ disorders as starting points for eloquent meditations on consciousness and the human condition, died on Sunday at his home in Manhattan. He was 82.

Among my few autobiographical books, "Uncle Tungsten" is my favorite. He will be missed. R.I.P.

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androbot01
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30 Aug 2015, 8:25 pm

Great mind. RIP

auntblabby
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30 Aug 2015, 8:30 pm

a superb life lived in full.

naturalplastic
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30 Aug 2015, 10:05 pm

He was played superbly by the late Robin Williams in 'Awakenings'.

auntblabby
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30 Aug 2015, 10:11 pm

he had brains and brawn [he was a body builder in his earlier years]

Kraichgauer
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31 Aug 2015, 1:18 am

naturalplastic wrote:

He was played superbly by the late Robin Williams in 'Awakenings'.

If that portrayal was truthful regarding his social awkwardness and preference for solitude, then I have to think Sacks might have been a fellow Aspie.

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Kraichgauer
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31 Aug 2015, 1:19 am

auntblabby wrote:

he had brains and brawn [he was a body builder in his earlier years]

I did not know that.

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cyberdad
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31 Aug 2015, 1:29 am

Kraichgauer wrote:

naturalplastic wrote:

He was played superbly by the late Robin Williams in 'Awakenings'.

If that portrayal was truthful regarding his social awkwardness and preference for solitude, then I have to think Sacks might have been a fellow Aspie.

It might have had something to do with his being gay and the associated stigma he faced in the early 1950s. Interestingly Sacks was celibate for much of his life.

auntblabby
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31 Aug 2015, 1:34 am

Kraichgauer wrote:

auntblabby wrote:

he had brains and brawn [he was a body builder in his earlier years]

I did not know that.

yes, very big into what was then called "physical culture."

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31 Aug 2015, 1:37 am

cyberdad wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

naturalplastic wrote:

He was played superbly by the late Robin Williams in 'Awakenings'.

If that portrayal was truthful regarding his social awkwardness and preference for solitude, then I have to think Sacks might have been a fellow Aspie.

It might have had something to do with his being gay and the associated stigma he faced in the early 1950s. Interestingly Sacks was celibate for much of his life.

Well, his being gay was definitely something the movie forgot to mention.

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cyberdad
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31 Aug 2015, 3:19 am

Kraichgauer wrote:

cyberdad wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

naturalplastic wrote:

He was played superbly by the late Robin Williams in 'Awakenings'.

If that portrayal was truthful regarding his social awkwardness and preference for solitude, then I have to think Sacks might have been a fellow Aspie.

It might have had something to do with his being gay and the associated stigma he faced in the early 1950s. Interestingly Sacks was celibate for much of his life.

Well, his being gay was definitely something the movie forgot to mention.

I was listening to his biographer on radio this morning and it was mentioned as a significant factor in his life.

Kraichgauer
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31 Aug 2015, 3:24 am

cyberdad wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

cyberdad wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

naturalplastic wrote:

He was played superbly by the late Robin Williams in 'Awakenings'.

If that portrayal was truthful regarding his social awkwardness and preference for solitude, then I have to think Sacks might have been a fellow Aspie.

It might have had something to do with his being gay and the associated stigma he faced in the early 1950s. Interestingly Sacks was celibate for much of his life.

Well, his being gay was definitely something the movie forgot to mention.

I was listening to his biographer on radio this morning and it was mentioned as a significant factor in his life.

I'm sure it had to have been. Many people are posthumously being let out of the closet, among them Anti-Nazi Lutheran minister Dietrich Bonhoeffer who had been executed for his support of the failed Stauffenberg bomb plot.

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cyberdad
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31 Aug 2015, 5:10 am

Kraichgauer wrote:

cyberdad wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

cyberdad wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

naturalplastic wrote:

He was played superbly by the late Robin Williams in 'Awakenings'.

If that portrayal was truthful regarding his social awkwardness and preference for solitude, then I have to think Sacks might have been a fellow Aspie.

It might have had something to do with his being gay and the associated stigma he faced in the early 1950s. Interestingly Sacks was celibate for much of his life.

Well, his being gay was definitely something the movie forgot to mention.

I was listening to his biographer on radio this morning and it was mentioned as a significant factor in his life.

Yes quite a few great men out of the closet in recent times if you consider the brilliant author George Orwell, the creator of modern computing Alan Turing and inventor Nikola Tesla.

Meistersinger
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31 Aug 2015, 5:18 am

Kraichgauer wrote:

cyberdad wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

cyberdad wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

naturalplastic wrote:

He was played superbly by the late Robin Williams in 'Awakenings'.

If that portrayal was truthful regarding his social awkwardness and preference for solitude, then I have to think Sacks might have been a fellow Aspie.

It might have had something to do with his being gay and the associated stigma he faced in the early 1950s. Interestingly Sacks was celibate for much of his life.

Well, his being gay was definitely something the movie forgot to mention.

I was listening to his biographer on radio this morning and it was mentioned as a significant factor in his life.

I don't recall seeing that fact in Bonhoffer's biography.

Kraichgauer
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31 Aug 2015, 2:14 pm

Meistersinger wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

cyberdad wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

cyberdad wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

naturalplastic wrote:

He was played superbly by the late Robin Williams in 'Awakenings'.

If that portrayal was truthful regarding his social awkwardness and preference for solitude, then I have to think Sacks might have been a fellow Aspie.

It might have had something to do with his being gay and the associated stigma he faced in the early 1950s. Interestingly Sacks was celibate for much of his life.

Well, his being gay was definitely something the movie forgot to mention.

I was listening to his biographer on radio this morning and it was mentioned as a significant factor in his life.

I don't recall seeing that fact in Bonhoffer's biography.

The newest Bonhoeffer biography called Strange Glory talks about it.

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Kraichgauer
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31 Aug 2015, 2:16 pm

cyberdad wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

cyberdad wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

cyberdad wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

naturalplastic wrote:

He was played superbly by the late Robin Williams in 'Awakenings'.

If that portrayal was truthful regarding his social awkwardness and preference for solitude, then I have to think Sacks might have been a fellow Aspie.

It might have had something to do with his being gay and the associated stigma he faced in the early 1950s. Interestingly Sacks was celibate for much of his life.

Well, his being gay was definitely something the movie forgot to mention.

I was listening to his biographer on radio this morning and it was mentioned as a significant factor in his life.

Yes quite a few great men out of the closet in recent times if you consider the brilliant author George Orwell, the creator of modern computing Alan Turing and inventor Nikola Tesla.

I certainly knew about Turing, but the revelations about Orwell and Tesla took me by surprise. I had always assumed Tesla was asexual.

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