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Oliver Sacks
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A Leg to Stand On Paperback – September 29, 2020

by Oliver Sacks (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 238 ratings
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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.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    240 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Vintage
  4. Publication date
    September 29, 2020
  5. Dimensions
    5.15 x 0.7 x 7.99 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0593311000
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0593311004
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“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 the Author

Dr. Oliver Sacks 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. The New York Times referred to him as "the poet laureate of medicine," 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. His memoir, On the Move, was published shortly before his death in August 2015.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (September 29, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0593311000
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593311004
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.15 x 0.7 x 7.99 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 238 ratings

About the author

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Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks

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Oliver Sacks was born in 1933 in London and was educated at Queen's College, Oxford. He completed his medical training at San Francisco's Mount Zion Hospital and at UCLA before moving to New York, where he soon encountered the patients whom he would write about in his book Awakenings.

Dr Sacks spent almost fifty years working as a neurologist and wrote many books, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia, and Hallucinations, about the strange neurological predicaments and conditions of his patients. The New York Times referred to him as 'the poet laureate of medicine', and over the years he received many awards, including honours from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Royal College of Physicians. In 2008, he was appointed Commander of the British Empire. His memoir, On the Move, was published shortly before his death in August 2015.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
238 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Thomas
5.0 out of 5 stars A very personal Oliver Sacks
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2014
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As always Dr. Sacks writes a very well told story, in this case a very personal one. Having survived a very serious accident and major injury to his leg, he is led to reflect deeply on patient doctor relationships and his sensitive analysis leads to insights into the potential improvement of current medical practices in situations such as he himself experienced. In the course of his reflections he delves deeply into the nature of our body self image and how we tend to automatically dismiss and denigrate the infirmity of others. His account of his injury and of the entire healing and recovery process is in many ways heroic and should prove to be an inspiration to others who have suffered traumatic injury. Perhaps unusually, he is moved in a deeply religious way to reflect on his recovery.
5 people found this helpful
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B. OBrien
5.0 out of 5 stars Great writing, but book itself smelled and was yellowed
Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2023
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Absolutely love this book. Misplaced my last copy so I ordered a replacement copy to re-read. Replacement copy will go in the trash unread -- smells strongly of cigar and pages are yellowed. I'll have to buy another, better quality, book.
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Dianne Sherman
4.0 out of 5 stars Lifeline for sanity
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2009
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Oliver Sachs' telling of his personal experience in shattering his leg and subsequent recovery was the absolute best medicine I could have received in my own journey back to wellness. He documented for me all the overwhelming feelings I was grappling with and put my mind to rest that I hadn't lost it, and wouldn't as this was just the phenomenon connected to leg trauma and recovery. Knowing this helped me to relax into my healing in a most positive and profound way.
4 people found this helpful
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Jon Linden
5.0 out of 5 stars Humanistic Neurology
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2008
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Sacks brilliantly chronicles his experiences as a neurological patient. His experience came from a mountain climbing expedition, where he totally broke a leg and severed or damaged the femoral nerve in his leg. This book is his story of recovery from that intense and serious accident.

What Sacks concentrates on in his story are the feelings of patients, particularly his own, who have serious neurological problems and how those feelings translate to the condition itself, or the condition translates to the feelings. His most significant commentary has to do with the feelings regarding the disassociation with the affected body part. One starts to feel that it is foreign, no longer a natural part of the body. And, that it no longer exists and will never again exist to the patient.

In addition, he carefully points out the non-recognition of these patient feelings by his Neurologist who sees himself more as a fixer of mechanical problems with the body, rather than a Dr. treating a real live human being with feelings of alienation of the limb and alienation from society. Sacks writing style is sophisticate and beautiful, a rare combination for a doctor, but he achieves it like always with exquisite aplomb. The book is highly recommended for all readers interested in physical recovery, especially those who have had a significant neurological problem.
7 people found this helpful
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Victor Mark
3.0 out of 5 stars Rare window into neurological disease by a noted neurologist
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2017
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This updated version of the autobiographical account by Dr Sacks of his experience of a short-term bout of inability to use his left leg allows Sacks to reflect possible causes for this condition. The updated version allows one to gain a unique perspective by Dr Sacks' of the turmoil of his illness. There are few autobiographical accounts of neurological disease by neuroscientists, and so such a view is to cherish.
This is a slim book which would not require more than a few days to complete. Unfortunately, the text is padded by ruminations and divergent passages that make getting through the text difficult. My attention wandered, wanting to learn, "What happened next?" The illness occupied only a few weeks.
Dr Sacks' prose of course is flowery, and he has a good grasp of diverse English literature. (I am writing in the present tense; Dr Sacks passed away in 2015. The illness in this book occurred in 1974.) When he sticks to describing the illness itself, one can have a vivid account of paralysis and self-identity.
The book was early in the long literary course of Dr Sacks. I cannot help imagining that if a later Dr Sacks had written the book, it would have been more direct. A good editor could have been used.
Close to the time of Dr Sacks' passing away, a debate occurred in the scientific literature what exactly had occurred to him. Dr Sacks speculates a loss of ability to mobilize his leg caused by some sort of a peripheral nerve injury, associated with a peculiar deficient of function in the spinal cord. Sacks himself witnessed similar (but still much different) phenomena in patients he had taken care of, and even reports a similar deficit in a pet dog. A different noted neurologist ventured that actually this was what is nowadays termed "functional neurological disorder," in earlier years termed hysteria, conversion disorder, or psychogenic disorder. Sacks rebutted the notion, but he left his mind open to the possibility.
As a publishing neurologist myself, I side with the view that this was a functional neurological disorder, but not one that is founded on a foundation of anxiety or other psychiatric turmoil. More reports are appearing in the literature that some patients encounter impaired neurologic function following abrupt injuries, without the association of verifiable nervous system structural damage. These accounts, including Dr Sacks' experience, point to a kind of neurological dysfunction that is still very poorly understood, but it is very common and disabling. The good news is that such disorders can respond to concentrated physical therapy, as indeed assisted Dr Sacks himself.
Regardless of one's own opinion what may have caused the difficulty, the account provides the reader the rare opportunity for a neurologist to visit his own nervous system dysfunction, a look from the "inside out" rather than the outside perspective of doctors looking at their patients, including Dr Sacks himself in his many other wonderful books.
13 people found this helpful
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sheila
5.0 out of 5 stars Oliver Sacks has a literary style that I love. He's so clear and vivid
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2016
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This book is autobiographical. It's based on his own experience of a compound leg fracture he got while on a mountain. In order to get help, he had to slide down on his butt. The story takes us through the medical intervention and his long recovery. Oliver Sacks has a literary style that I love. He's so clear and vivid. This book is valuable because it illuminated the body/mind connection.
One person found this helpful
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Ardys Brevig Richards
5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning description of hemiopnia
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2022
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He holds nothing back in his experience as patient. Remarkable ability to describe the total disconnection from a part of his own body. And to recall and revel in the return to wholeness.
2 people found this helpful
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J M Wood
5.0 out of 5 stars Little known treasure
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 8, 2023
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I stumbled across ‘A leg to stand on’ (near pun not intended) and am glad I did.

Good read, lots covered.

OS recounts the situation, an accident he suffered and tells of the moods and the mental states rather wonderfully
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Darma Elena
4.0 out of 5 stars Bel libro, brutta edizione
Reviewed in Italy on August 23, 2022
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Ho Incominciato a leggerlo appena fuori dalla busta! Un libro importante, di cui ho saputo dal blog Marginalia di Maria Popova.
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Darma Elena
4.0 out of 5 stars Bel libro, brutta edizione
Reviewed in Italy on August 23, 2022
Ho Incominciato a leggerlo appena fuori dalla busta! Un libro importante, di cui ho saputo dal blog Marginalia di Maria Popova.
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Jean Leduc
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on December 28, 2015
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Fantastic book, reveals much about the human mind and its vulnerable connection to the body.
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Anita Fleice
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on June 19, 2015
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I love anything by Oliver Sacks...he's so eloquent and passionate.
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sam lockley
5.0 out of 5 stars A neurological and existential journey
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 12, 2013
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I am currently writing an essay regarding disability and its relation to the medical profession. In this book Oliver Sacks provides a keen insight into both his relationship with the clinicians around him and also the divide that occurs within himself following a neurological injury to his leg. He learns much about the existential challenges faced by the disabled and also the flaws in how the medical profession interact with this demographic. Sacks writes with the profound amazement of one who has just opened his eyes. I highly recommend this book.
2 people found this helpful
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