An-Anthropologist-On-Mars-By-Oliver
1 An Anthropologist on Mars SEVEN PARADOXICAL TALES Oliver Sacks Copyright © 1995 ISBN 0679437851 2 To the seven whose stories are related here The universe is not only queerer than we imagine, but queerer than we can imagine. J . B. S. Haldane Ask not what disease the person has, but rather what person the disease has. (attributed to) William Osler 3 Contents Acknowledgments 5 Preface 7 The Case of the Colorblind Painter 10 The Last Hippie 33 A Surgeon's Life 51 To See and Not See 66 The Landscape of His Dreams 88 Prodigies 108 An Anthropologist on Mars 143 Selected Bibliography Contents Acknowledgments 4 Acknowledgments First, I am deeply grateful to my subjects: "Jonathan I.," "Greg F.," "Carl Bennett," "Virgil," Franco Magnani, Stephen Wiltshire, and Temple Grandin. To them, their families, their friends, their physicians and therapists, I owe an infinite debt. Two very special colleagues have been Bob Wasserman (who was my co-author onthe original version of "The Case of the Colorblind Painter") and Ralph Siegel(who has been a collaborator in other books)-we formed a sort of team in thecases of Jonathan I. and Virgil. I owe to many friends and colleagues (more than I can enumerate!) information, help, and stimulating discussion. With some there has been a close, continualcolloquy over the years, as with Jerry Bruner and Gerald Edelman; with othersonly occasional meetings and letters; but all have excited and inspired me indifferent ways. These include: Ursula Bellugi, Peter Brook, Jerome Bruner, Elizabeth Chase, Patricia and Paul Churchland, Joanne Cohen, Pietro Corsi, Francis Crick, Antonio and Hanna Damasio, Merlin Donald, Freeman Dyson, GeraldEdelman, Carol Feldman, Shane Fistell, Allen Fur-beck, Frances Futterman, Elkhonon Goldberg, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Gregory, Kevin Halligan, LowellHandler, Mickey Hart, Jay Itzkowitz, Helen Jones, Eric Korn, Deborah Lai, Skipand Doris Lane, Sue Levi-Pearl, John MacGregor, John Marshall, Juan Martinez, Jonathan and Rachel Miller, Arnold Modell, Jonathan Mueller, Jock Murray, KnutNordby, Michael Pearce, V.
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