內容簡介
內容簡介 掉了色彩的世界，會是何模樣？健忘到不行，最後連煩惱也沒了，又是何光景？大半輩子瞎眼，再開眼，會看到什麼？兒時景致突然鮮活迸發腦海，縈繞不去，又代表著什麼？情感短路，會處於什麼樣的世界？本書呈現七個腦神經異常者的生命故事。他們或有視覺、記憶、認知、感知等方面的問題。腦神經如此精密，只要稍有閃失，就會讓人置身於想像之外的國度，變成一個「外星人」。他們或許正怪異地活在我們周遭，但透過神經科醫師薩克斯的筆，我們卻看到他們的生活，他們深刻而人性的一面；其生命厚度早就超越病症名稱所能界定的單薄範疇。作者帶領我們經歷一場知性感性兼具、有如希臘悲劇似的精神洗禮。從一開始的驚愕，到後來因理解而見怪不怪，甚至彷彿看到自己的影子，再到主客易位，變成自閉症者眼中的怪ㄎㄚ，我們正逐步跨越「正常」與「異常」的分際；在走出對「病」的狹隘視野時，深刻體驗生命神奇的再造力量和其個別的獨特價值。透過七個腦神經病患的真實故事，神經科醫師薩克斯引領讀者走向超乎人類經驗所能想像的國度，看見人類如何擁有重建與再生的可貴力量；並讓讀者從一個嶄新的角度，了解大腦如何建構出我們的世界，因而對自己有一番新的體認。本書中文書介出自<<火星上的人類學家 (新版)>>遠見天下文化出版‘An inexhaustible tourist at the farther reaches of the mind, Sacks presents, in sparse, unsentimental prose, the stories of seven of his patients. The result is as rich, vivid and compelling as any collection of short fictional stories’ Independent on SundayAs with his previous bestseller, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks uses case studies to illustrate the myriad ways in which neurological conditions can affect our sense of self, our experience of the world, and how we relate to those around us. Writing with his trademark blend of scientific rigour and human compassion, he describes patients such as the colour-blind painter or the surgeon with compulsive tics that disappear in the operating theatre; patients for whom disorientation and alienation – but also adaptation – are inescapable facts of life.‘Sacks’ great gift is his capacity to place himself in the position of his subjects, to see the world the way they see it and to empathize with their condition with great compassion but without patronage or pity’ Daily Telegraph‘Writing simply and beautifully, Sacks uses individual case histories to reveal the infinite complexities of the human mind’ Daily Mail
