Editing Oliver Sacks (section)

==Career==
[[File:9.13.09OliverSacksByLuigiNovi.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Sacks in 2009]]
Sacks served as an instructor and later professor of clinical neurology at [[Yeshiva University]]'s [[Albert Einstein College of Medicine]] from 1966 to 2007, and also held an appointment at the [[New York University School of Medicine]] from 1992 to 2007. In July 2007 he joined the faculty of [[Columbia University Medical Center]] as a professor of neurology and [[psychiatry]].<ref name="Columbia"/> At the same time he was appointed Columbia University's first "Columbia University Artist" at the university's [[Morningside Heights, Manhattan|Morningside Heights]] campus, recognising the role of his work in bridging the arts and sciences. He was also a visiting professor at the [[University of Warwick]] in the UK.<ref name="NYU Langone Medical Center">[http://www.newswise.com/articles/nyu-langone-medical-center-welcomes-neurologist-and-author-oliver-sacks-md "NYU Langone Medical Center Welcomes Neurologist and Author Oliver Sacks, MD"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303191805/http://www.newswise.com/articles/nyu-langone-medical-center-welcomes-neurologist-and-author-oliver-sacks-md|date=3 March 2016}}. Newswise.com. 13 September 2012.</ref> He returned to New York University School of Medicine in 2012, serving as a professor of neurology and consulting neurologist in the school's epilepsy centre.<ref>{{cite web|title=Oliver Sacks, MD, FRCP|url=http://faces.med.nyu.edu/about-us/faculty/neurologistsepileptologists/oliver-sacks-md-frcp|website=FACES (Finding a Cure for Epilepsy and Seizures)|access-date=14 September 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905153500/http://faces.med.nyu.edu/about-us/faculty/neurologistsepileptologists/oliver-sacks-md-frcp|archive-date=5 September 2015}}</ref>

Sacks's work at Beth Abraham Hospital helped provide the foundation on which the [[Institute for Music and Neurologic Function]] (IMNF) is built; Sacks was an honorary medical advisor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bethabe.org/About_the_Institute100.html|title=About the Institute|access-date=9 August 2008|publisher=Institute for Music and Neurologic Function|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514072627/http://www.bethabe.org/About_the_Institute100.html|archive-date=14 May 2008}}</ref> The Institute honoured Sacks in 2000 with its first ''Music Has Power Award''.<ref>{{cite journal |date=1 January 2006 |title=Henry Z. Steinway honored with 'Music Has Power' award: Beth Abraham Hospital honors piano maker for a lifetime of 'affirming the value of music' |journal=Music Trades Magazine |url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Henry+Z.+Steinway+honored+with+%22Music+Has+Power%22+award:+Beth+Abraham...-a0140912433 |access-date=9 August 2008}}{{Dead link|date=December 2013}}</ref> The IMNF again bestowed a ''Music Has Power Award'' on him in 2006 to commemorate "his 40 years at Beth Abraham and honour his outstanding contributions in support of [[music therapy]] and the effect of music on the human brain and mind."<ref>{{cite press release|url=http://www.pr.com/press-release/20023|title=2006 Music Has Power Awards featuring performance by Rob Thomas, honouring acclaimed neurologist & author Dr. Oliver Sacks|access-date=9 August 2008|publisher=Beth Abraham Family of Health Services|date=13 October 2006|archive-date=8 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208225434/http://www.pr.com/press-release/20023|url-status=live}}</ref>

Sacks maintained a busy hospital-based practice in New York City. He accepted a very limited number of private patients, in spite of being in great demand for such consultations. He served on the boards of [[The Neurosciences Institute]] and the [[New York Botanical Garden]].<ref>Sacks, O. ''Oliver Sacks Curriculum Vitae''. Retrieved 7 January 2017 from http://www.oliversacks.com/os/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Oliver-Sacks-cv-2014.pdf {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160702053749/http://www.oliversacks.com/os/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Oliver-Sacks-cv-2014.pdf |date=2 July 2016}}</ref>

===Writing===
In 1967 Sacks first began to write of his experiences with some of his neurological patients. He burned his first such book, ''Ward 23'', during an episode of self-doubt.<ref>{{cite book|first=Steve|last=Silberman|author-link=Steve Silberman|title=NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity|year=2015|publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1583334676}}</ref> His books have been translated into over 25 languages. In addition, Sacks was a regular contributor to ''[[The New Yorker]]'', ''[[the New York Review of Books]]'', ''[[The New York Times]]'', ''[[London Review of Books]]'' and numerous other medical, scientific and general publications.<ref name="sacks_newyorker_search">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/search/?bylquery=%22Oliver%20Sacks%22|title=Archive: Search: The New Yorker—Oliver Sacks|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|access-date=13 August 2008|archive-date=16 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016231913/http://www.newyorker.com/search/?bylquery=%22Oliver%20Sacks%22|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="sacks_newyorkreview_contribs">{{cite web|url=http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/oliver-sacks/|title=Oliver Sacks—The New York Review of Books|access-date=13 August 2008|archive-date=7 July 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707091148/http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/oliver-sacks/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="sacks_periodicals">{{cite web|url=http://www.oliversacks.com/peri1.htm|title=Oliver Sacks. Publications & Periodicals|publisher=oliversacks.com|access-date=13 August 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080610163014/http://www.oliversacks.com/peri1.htm|archive-date=10 June 2008}}</ref> He was awarded the [[Lewis Thomas Prize|Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science]] in 2001.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lectures-events.rockefeller.edu/event_detail.php?id=11&y=2002&sub=3 |title=Lewis Thomas Prize |date=18 March 2002 |access-date=9 August 2008 |publisher=The Rockefeller University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101002104/http://lectures-events.rockefeller.edu/event_detail.php?id=11&y=2002&sub=3 |archive-date=1 November 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Sacks's work is featured in a "broader range of media than those of any other contemporary medical author"<ref name="Wired">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.04/sacks_pr.html|last=Silberman |first=Steve|author-link=Steve Silberman|title=The Fully Immersive Mind of Oliver Sacks|magazine=Wired|access-date=10 August 2008|archive-date=18 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218031104/http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.04/sacks_pr.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and in 1990, ''The New York Times'' wrote he "has become a kind of poet laureate of contemporary medicine".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4D8103FF932A35757C0A966958260|date=1 April 1990|title=Good books abut (sic) being sick|last=Broyard |first=Anatole|author-link=Anatole Broyard|work=The New York Times|access-date=10 August 2008|archive-date=15 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090215080508/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4D8103FF932A35757C0A966958260|url-status=live}}</ref>

Sacks considered his literary style to have grown out of the tradition of 19th-century "clinical anecdotes", a literary style that included detailed narrative case histories, which he termed novelistic. He also counted among his inspirations the case histories of the Russian neuropsychologist [[A. R. Luria]], who became a close friend through correspondence from 1973 until Luria's death in 1977.<ref name="TranscriptRadioShow">{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/mind/stories/s1334384.htm|title=The Inner Life of the Broken Brain: Narrative and Neurology|work=[[Radio National]]|publisher=[[All in the Mind (Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio)|All in the Mind]]|date=2 April 2005|access-date=10 August 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080222173513/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/mind/stories/s1334384.htm|archive-date=22 February 2008}}</ref><ref name="cambridgeHandbook">Sacks, O. (2014). Luria and "Romantic Science". In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of [[cultural-historical psychology]] (517–528). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press</ref> After the publication of his first book ''Migraine'' in 1970, a review by his close friend [[W. H. Auden]] encouraged Sacks to adapt his writing style to "be metaphorical, be mythical, be whatever you need."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Wallace-Wells|first1=David|title=A Brain With a Heart|url=https://nymag.com/news/features/oliver-sacks-2012-11/|work=New York|date=3 November 2012 |access-date=30 August 2015|archive-date=6 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906001253/http://nymag.com/news/features/oliver-sacks-2012-11/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Sacks described his cases with a wealth of narrative detail, concentrating on the experiences of the patient (in the case of his ''A Leg to Stand On'', the patient was himself). The patients he described were often able to adapt to their situation in different ways although their neurological conditions were usually considered incurable.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sacks|first=Oliver|title=An Anthropologist on Mars|orig-year=1995|edition=New|year=1996|publisher=Picador|location=London|isbn=0-330-34347-5|pages=xiii–xviii|chapter=Preface|quote="The sense of the brain's remarkable plasticity, its capacity for the most striking adaptations, not least in the special (and often desperate) circumstances of neural or sensory mishap, has come to dominate my own perception of my patients and their lives."|no-pp=true}}</ref> His book ''[[Awakenings (book)|Awakenings]]'', upon which the 1990 [[Awakenings|feature film of the same name]] is based, describes his experiences using the new drug [[levodopa]] on [[Encephalitis|post-encephalitic]] patients at the Beth Abraham Hospital, later Beth Abraham Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, in New York.<ref name="About"/> ''Awakenings'' was also the subject of the first documentary, made in 1974, for the British television series ''[[Discovery (British TV series)|Discovery]]''. Composer and friend of Sacks [[Tobias Picker]] composed a ballet inspired by ''Awakenings'' for the [[Rambert Dance Company]], which was premiered by Rambert in [[Salford, Greater Manchester|Salford]], UK in 2010;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theballetbag.com/2010/09/21/rambert-awakenings/ |title=Rambert Dance Company: The Making of Awakenings |publisher=The Ballet Bag |access-date=14 December 2016 |archive-date=18 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140518004312/http://www.theballetbag.com/2010/09/21/rambert-awakenings/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2022, Picker premiered an opera of Awakenings<ref>{{cite news | first = Fiona | last = MacCarthy | authorlink=Fiona MacCarthy |newspaper = [[The Times]] | date = 5 December 1985 | title = Travels round a couch}}</ref> at [[Opera Theatre of Saint Louis]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2020-02-13/awakenings-opera-premiering-in-st-louis-came-from-couples-mutual-inspiration|title=Awakenings Opera Premiering In St. Louis Came From Couple's Mutual Inspiration|last=Fenske|first=Sarah|work=St. Louis Public Radio|access-date=1 May 2022|archive-date=30 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030074531/https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2020-02-13/awakenings-opera-premiering-in-st-louis-came-from-couples-mutual-inspiration|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.operanews.com/Opera_News_Magazine/2022/6/Features/Re-Awakenings.html|title=Re-Awakenings|last=Cohn|first=Fred|work=[[Opera News]]|access-date=3 September 2022|archive-date=27 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220927155742/https://www.operanews.com/Opera_News_Magazine/2022/6/Features/Re-Awakenings.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/arts/music/awakenings-opera-oliver-sacks.html|title=An Oliver Sacks Book Becomes an Opera, With Help From Friends|last=Barone|first=Joshua|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=25 May 2022|access-date=3 September 2022|archive-date=27 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220927155742/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/arts/music/awakenings-opera-oliver-sacks.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0ccs1k4|title=Awakenings opera opens three decades after Hollywood movie|last=Brook|first=Tom|work=[[BBC]]|access-date=3 September 2022|archive-date=27 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220927155740/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0ccs1k4|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/opera-theatre-of-saint-louis-tobias-picker-awakenings-oliver-sacks-stewart-wallace-michael-korie-harvey-milk-carmen-rondula-gaitanou-aryeh-lev-stollman-susanna-phillips-adrienne-danrich-andres-acosta-katharine-geoldner-jarrett-porter-james-robinson-roberto-kalb-george-moscone-dan-white-thomas-glass-cesar-andres-parreno-nathan-stark-jonathan-johnson-kyle-sanchez-tingzon-carolyn-kuan-sarah-mesko-yunuet-laguna-adam-smith-christian-pursell-rachael-nelson-cordelia-chisolm-daniela-candillari-11656366785|title='Awakenings', 'Harvey Milk' and 'Carmen' Review: Two Poignant Premieres and an Old Favorite|last=Waleson|first=Heidi|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|access-date=3 September 2022|archive-date=27 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220927155742/https://www.wsj.com/articles/opera-theatre-of-saint-louis-tobias-picker-awakenings-oliver-sacks-stewart-wallace-michael-korie-harvey-milk-carmen-rondula-gaitanou-aryeh-lev-stollman-susanna-phillips-adrienne-danrich-andres-acosta-katharine-geoldner-jarrett-porter-james-robinson-roberto-kalb-george-moscone-dan-white-thomas-glass-cesar-andres-parreno-nathan-stark-jonathan-johnson-kyle-sanchez-tingzon-carolyn-kuan-sarah-mesko-yunuet-laguna-adam-smith-christian-pursell-rachael-nelson-cordelia-chisolm-daniela-candillari-11656366785|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Oliver Sacks at TED 2009.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Sacks in 2009]]
In his memoir ''A Leg to Stand On'' he wrote about the consequences of a near-fatal accident he had at age 41 in 1974, a year after the publication of ''Awakenings'', when he fell off a cliff and severely injured his left leg while [[mountaineering]] alone above [[Hardangerfjord]], [[Norway]].<ref>{{cite magazine |title=The Bull on the Mountain |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1984/06/28/the-bull-on-the-mountain/ |first=Oliver |last=Sacks |date=28 June 1984 |magazine=The New York Review |publisher=The New York Review of Books |access-date=29 October 2024 |archive-date=15 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115043859/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1984/06/28/the-bull-on-the-mountain/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="OS NYTimes">{{cite news|last=Sacks|first=Oliver|title=The Joy of Old Age. (No Kidding.)|newspaper=The New York Times|date=6 July 2013}}</ref>

In some of his other books, he describes cases of [[Tourette syndrome]] and various effects of [[Parkinson's disease]]. The title article of ''[[The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat]]'' describes a man with [[visual agnosia]]<ref>{{cite AV media|year=1987|title=Video: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1987)|url=https://archive.org/details/openmind_ep1217|publisher=[[The Open Mind (TV series)|The Open Mind]]|access-date=21 February 2012}}</ref> and was the subject of a 1986 opera by [[Michael Nyman]]. The book was edited by Kate Edgar, who formed a long-lasting partnership with Sacks, with Sacks later calling her a “mother figure” and saying that he did his best work when she was with him, including ''Seeing Voices, Uncle Tungsten, Musicophilia, and Hallucinations.''<ref>{{cite news |last=Francis |first=Gavin |date=27 October 2024 |title=Letters by Oliver Sacks review – valuable insight into a curious mind |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/oct/27/letters-by-oliver-sacks-kate-edgar-review |access-date=5 November 2024 |work=The Observer |issn=0029-7712}}</ref>

The title article of his book ''[[An Anthropologist on Mars]]'', which won a [[Polk Award]] for magazine reporting, is about [[Temple Grandin]], an [[autistic]] professor. He writes in the book's preface that neurological conditions such as autism "can play a paradoxical role, by bringing out latent powers, developments, evolutions, forms of life that might never be seen, or even be imaginable, in their absence". Sacks's 1989 book ''[[Seeing Voices]]'' covers a variety of topics in [[deaf studies]]. The romantic drama film ''[[At First Sight (1999 film)|At First Sight]]'' (1999) was based on the essay "To See and Not See"<!-- >14,000 words = short work, so the title should be in quotes, not italicized. --> in ''An Anthropologist on Mars''. Sacks also has a small role in the film as a reporter.

In his book ''[[The Island of the Colorblind]]'' Sacks wrote about an island where many people have [[achromatopsia]] (total colourblindness, very low visual acuity and high [[photophobia]]). The second section of this book, titled ''Cycad Island'', describes the [[Chamorro people]] of [[Guam]], who have a high incidence of a neurodegenerative disease locally known as [[lytico-bodig disease]] (a devastating combination of [[Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis|ALS]], [[dementia]] and [[parkinsonism]]). Later, along with [[Paul Alan Cox]], Sacks published papers suggesting a possible environmental cause for the disease, namely the toxin [[beta-methylamino L-alanine]] (BMAA) from the [[cycad]] nut accumulating by [[biomagnification]] in the [[Pteropus|flying fox bat]].<ref name=Ncbi1>{{cite journal|last1=Murch |first1=S. J. |last2=Cox |first2=P. A. |last3=Banack |first3=S. A. |last4=Steele |first4=J. C. |last5=Sacks |first5=O. W.|title=Occurrence of beta-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA) in ALS/PDC patients from Guam|journal=[[Acta Neurol. Scand.]]|volume=110|issue=4|pages=267–9|date=October 2004|pmid=15355492|doi=10.1111/j.1600-0404.2004.00320.x|s2cid=32474959|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=Ncbi2>{{cite journal|last1=Cox |first1=P. A. |last2=Sacks |first2=O. W.|title=Cycad neurotoxins, consumption of flying foxes, and ALS-PDC disease in Guam|journal=[[Neurology (journal)|Neurology]]|volume=58|issue=6|pages=956–9|date=March 2002|pmid=11914415|doi=10.1212/wnl.58.6.956}}{{registration required}}</ref>

In November 2012 Sacks's book ''[[Hallucinations (book)|Hallucinations]]'' was published. In it he examined why ordinary people can sometimes experience hallucinations and challenged the stigma associated with the word. He explained: "Hallucinations don't belong wholly to the insane. Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness or injury."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oliversacks.com/books/hallucinations/|title=Hallucinations|publisher=Oliversacks.com|access-date=24 August 2015|archive-date=8 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141008095205/http://www.oliversacks.com/books/hallucinations/|url-status=live}}</ref> He also considers the less well known [[Charles Bonnet syndrome]], sometimes found in people who have lost their eyesight. The book was described by ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' as: "Elegant... An absorbing plunge into a mystery of the mind."<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Lee|first=Stephan|title=Book Review: Hallucinations|url=https://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20643720,00.html|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|access-date=20 September 2012|archive-date=23 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130323041122/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20643720,00.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Sacks sometimes faced criticism in the medical and disability studies communities. [[Arthur K. Shapiro]], for instance, an expert on [[Tourette syndrome]], said Sacks's work was "idiosyncratic" and relied too much on [[anecdotal evidence]] in his writings.<ref>Kushner (2000), p. 204</ref>{{full|date=December 2024}} Researcher Makoto Yamaguchi thought Sacks's mathematical explanations, in his study of the numerically gifted savant twins (in ''The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat''), were irrelevant, and questioned Sacks's methods.<ref>{{cite web |first1=Makoto |last1=Yamaguchi |title=Savant syndrome and prime numbers |url=http://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/ppb.2009.40.issue-2/s10059-009-0023-1/s10059-009-0023-1.xml |publisher=Polish Psychological Bulletin |access-date=22 May 2021 |pages=69–73 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160820114410/http://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/ppb.2009.40.issue-2/s10059-009-0023-1/s10059-009-0023-1.xml |archive-date=20 August 2016}}</ref> Although Sacks has been characterised as a "compassionate" writer and doctor,<ref name="weinraub">{{cite news|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1044036.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106054853/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1044036.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 November 2012|title=Oliver Sacks: Hero of the Hopeless; The Doctor of 'Awakenings,' With Compassion for the Chronically Ill|last=Weinraub|first=Judith|date=13 January 1991|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=12 August 2008}}</ref><ref name="bianculli">{{cite web|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/1998/08/25/1998-08-25_healthy_dose_of_compassion_i.html|title=Healthy Dose of Compassion in Medical 'Mind' Series|last=Bianculli|first=David|date=25 August 1998|work=[[Daily News (New York)|Daily News]]|location=New York|access-date=12 August 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210095928/http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/1998/08/25/1998-08-25_healthy_dose_of_compassion_i.html|archive-date=10 February 2009}}</ref><ref name="kakutani_1995">{{cite web|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEEDB1330F937A25751C0A963958260|title=Finding the Advantages in Some Mind Disorders|last=Kakutani|first=Michiko|date=14 February 1995|work=The New York Times|access-date=12 August 2008|archive-date=13 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213102013/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEEDB1330F937A25751C0A963958260|url-status=live}}</ref> others have felt that he exploited his subjects.<ref name=Couser/><ref>{{cite thesis|title=Decloaking Disability: Images of Disability and Technology in Science Fiction Media|last=Verlager|first=Alicia|date=August 2006|publisher=MIT|hdl = 1721.1/39143|type=Thesis }}</ref> Sacks was called "the man who mistook his patients for a literary career" by British academic and disability rights activist [[Tom Shakespeare]],<ref>{{cite journal|last=Shakespeare|first=Tom|journal=Disability and Society|volume=11|issue=1|pages=137–142|title=Book Review: ''An Anthropologist on Mars''|year=1996|doi=10.1080/09687599650023380}}</ref> and one critic called his work "a high-brow [[freak show]]".<ref name=Couser>{{cite web|url=http://poynter.indiana.edu/files/4213/4513/2230/m-couser.pdf|last=Couser|first=G. Thomas|title=The Cases of Oliver Sacks: The Ethics of Neuroanthropology|date=December 2001|publisher=The Poynter Center, [[Indiana University]]|access-date=10 August 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120928221931/http://poynter.indiana.edu/files/4213/4513/2230/m-couser.pdf|archive-date=28 September 2012}}</ref> Sacks responded, "I would hope that a reading of what I write shows respect and appreciation, not any wish to expose or exhibit for the thrill{{nbsp}}... but it's a delicate business."<ref name="Burkeman">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/may/10/medicalscience.scienceandnature|title=Sacks appeal|last=Burkeman|first=Oliver|author-link=Oliver Burkeman|date=10 May 2002|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=18 August 2008|archive-date=21 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921171713/https://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/may/10/medicalscience.scienceandnature|url-status=live}}</ref>

He also wrote ''[[The Mind's Eye (Sacks book)|The Mind's Eye]]'', ''Oaxaca Journal'' and ''[[On the Move: A Life]]'' (his second autobiography).

Before his death in 2015 Sacks founded the Oliver Sacks Foundation, a non-profit organization established to increase understanding of the brain through using narrative non-fiction and case histories, with goals that include publishing some of Sacks's unpublished writings, and making his vast amount of unpublished writings available for scholarly study.<ref>[http://www.oliversacks.com/a-life-well-lived/ A Life Well Lived] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222194045/http://www.oliversacks.com/a-life-well-lived/ |date=22 February 2017 }} 30 August 2015</ref> The first posthumous book  of Sacks's writings, ''River of Consciousness'', an anthology of his essays, was published in October 2017.  Most of the essays had been previously published in various periodicals or in science-essay-anthology books, but were no longer readily obtainable.  Sacks specified the order of his essays in ''River of Consciousness'' prior to his death.  Some of the essays focus on repressed memories and other tricks the mind plays on itself.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://arts.theaureview.com/reviews/book-review-oliver-sacks-the-river-of-consciousness-is-a-look-inside-a-beautiful-enquiring-mind/|title=Book Review: Oliver Sacks' The River of Consciousness is a look inside a beautiful and enquiring mind|date=7 January 2018|access-date=19 January 2018|archive-date=20 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180120070657/http://arts.theaureview.com/reviews/book-review-oliver-sacks-the-river-of-consciousness-is-a-look-inside-a-beautiful-enquiring-mind/|url-status=live}}</ref> This was followed by a collection of some of his letters.<ref>{{cite news| last=Francis | first=Gavin | title=Letters by Oliver Sacks review – valuable insight into a curious mind |newspaper=The Observer| date=27 October 2024 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/oct/27/letters-by-oliver-sacks-kate-edgar-review}}</ref> Sacks was a prolific handwritten-letter correspondent, and never communicated by e-mail.