The river of consciousness / by Oliver Sacks.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sacks, Oliver, 1933-2015.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Consciousness.

Neuropsychology.

Creative ability.

Physical Description:

x, 237 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2017.

Summary:

"Two weeks before his death, Oliver Sacks outlined the contents of The River of Consciousness, the last book he would oversee. The best-selling author of On the Move, Musicophilia, and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Sacks is known for his illuminating case histories about people living with neurological conditions at the far borderlands of human experience. But his grasp of science was not restricted to neuroscience or medicine; he was fascinated by the issues, ideas, and questions of all the sciences. That wide-ranging expertise and passion informs the perspective of this book, in which he interrogates the nature not only of human experience but of all life. In The River of Consciousness, Dr. Sacks takes on evolution, botany, chemistry, medicine, neuroscience, and the arts, and calls upon his great scientific and creative heroes--above all, Darwin, Freud, and William James. For Sacks, these thinkers were constant companions from an early age; the questions they explored--the meaning of evolution, the roots of creativity, and the nature of consciousness--lie at the heart of science and of this book. The River of Consciousness demonstrates Sacks's unparalleled ability to make unexpected connections, his sheer joy in knowledge, and his unceasing, timeless endeavor to understand what makes us human."--Dust jacket flap.

Contents:

Darwin and the meaning of flowers

Speed

Sentience : the mental lives of plants and worms

The other road : Freud as neurologist

The fallibility of memory

Mishearings

The creative self

A general feeling of disorder

The river of consciousness

Scotoma : forgetting and neglect in science.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Shober fund bookplate.

Other Format:

Online version

Sacks, Oliver, 1933-2015. River of consciousness

ISBN:

9780385352567

0385352565