Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

Oliver Sacks, writer of Musicophilia and numerous other books on neurology and history, was a neurologist who spent most of his life working with patients with various neurological conditions. Sacks was particularly fascinated by these conditions because they illuminated aspects of human neurology that would otherwise be undiscovered in the neurotypical population. As a writer, Sacks explored the relationship between the structure of the brain and aspects of the human experience more often associated with culture and the arts than with science. Sacks was diagnosed with a neurological condition of his own when he developed a tumor in his right eye that eventually left him blind in that eye. He also had moderate prosopagnosia, or face-blindness, throughout his life, though he did not realize he had the condition until middle age. In Musicophilia, Sacks writes of his experiences with amusia and grief, but focuses mainly on the experiences of those he knew and was impacted by. Sacks died in 2015 of the same ocular melanoma that caused his blindness. He remains essential to the history of neuroscience and to its continued advancement, and leaves behind an example of what a doctor should be: Compassionate, curious, and creative.

Sacks had a deep, personal love of music, particularly classical music, and this love increased as he witnessed how music can be used as a Tool of Adaptation, Resilience, and Healing and began to recognize the importance of Music as an Innate Human Characteristic. These conclusions came after decades of working with patients with various neurological conditions including epilepsy, Tourette’s syndrome, Williams syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, amnesia, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, and many more, including neurological differences that are not considered debilitating conditions, such as amusia and synesthesia. Sacks writes about these experiences and people with a tone of empathy and humanity that is rarely found in scientific literature. He was referred to as the “Poet Laureate” of medicine by the New York Times for this reason. In his writing, Sacks goes beyond the mechanics of neurological conditions to consider how these conditions affect people and their lives, as well as how people find ways to adapt: “One must infer that there are, in many individuals, at least, very concrete eidetic and mnemonic powers which are normally hidden, but which may surface or be released under exceptional conditions” (170). Sacks also includes accounts of his own personal experiences of musical neurology, such as when he experienced temporary amusia and when his grief was let loose from within him by the sound of a familiar lament. Musicophilia focuses specifically on music as a means of reconciliation with a self that is lost to various conditions, and Sacks constantly poses new questions about The Limits of Knowledge in Musical Neurology.