Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (Hardcover)
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Caveat: Since I just lent my copy to someone else today, this is a little off the top of my head: Sacks is a neurologist, and that is more evident in later chapters, but the first few shed a whole lot of light, I think, on the...
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Caveat: Since I just lent my copy to someone else today, this is a little off the top of my head: Sacks is a neurologist, and that is more evident in later chapters, but the first few shed a whole lot of light, I think, on the field of psychology and psychiatry: Basically it explores the quesition, "When do hallucinations indicate clinical madness(pre-pc term), or not(Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination)?" The middle, more strictly neurological chapters make me anxious, I admit. Especially the one about the guy who lost all short-term memory except how to play music he already knew! He kept saying to his wife, "Well, here you are!" when she'd been there for hours. If it was all I had, would my own musical canon be enough? The middle chapters also tell you some little-known stuff I felt I already knew; probably because it rehashed material from his earlier books. Well, fine. OK. The last chapter is not bad on the effectiveness of musical therapy, which has been a "new field" since at least the 80's, a new field where it is tough to find employment. Nice way to wind up. But on the whole, I recommend the first few chapters. I believe it is the finest writing in the book. An opthamologist I know, who laid the groundwork for Sacks' book on the island of the colorblind, would say he's more of a story-teller than a researcher; but that's no small thing. Freud(The Interpretation of Dreams) was a great storyteller, too.
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