Awaken

Author: Oliver Sacks (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: Awakenings is based on a true story. As a physician, Sacks discovered that the new drug L-Dopa, still in the trial phase, had an unexpected "awakening" effect on patients who had survived the encephalitis lethargica epidemic that swept the world after World War I but remained in a state of coma for decades. These men and women, considered "hopeless," surprisingly "awoke" and regained "life" after receiving the new drug treatment. Sacks recounts these touching cases, describing their life stories, and the extraordinary transformations they experienced after treatment. The author of the book is a renowned American physician and writer, hailed by The New York Times as the "Poet Laureate of Medicine." The film adaptation of Awakenings, titled Awakenings, was nominated for three Academy Awards in 1990.
The topic may seem obscure, but the author's pursuit is not merely to view disease from a mechanical or chemical perspective. Instead, it should be approached from a higher level—biological or even purely philosophical—to correctly address the patients' total needs and emotions. Thus, the central theme of the book becomes the world of imagining others' lives, though it is a very strange world. Then, "our world becomes clear." From this perspective, Awakenings demonstrates a humanitarian concern that is deeply moving.