Reviews for A Private Prosecution

The average rating for A Private Prosecution based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-12-29 00:00:00 John M Tama Wow, what a marvelous book! I'd always thought: "how can even the brilliant Oliver Sacks write a 200-page book about his own leg?" That would have to be one of the great works of solipsism, wouldn't it? And it is, it is--the book is among other things a fascinating investigation of self, but it goes beyond that. In 1974 Dr. Sacks (a shy bookish man by temperament) went for a friendly climb of a 7,000 foot mountain in Norway. I don't know if you can say that Dr. Sacks does anything thoughtlessly, but when he clambers into the paddock of a bull despite ample signage warning him away, you wonder. In due course, he comes across the bull, which really does nothing more than raise it massive horned head. The animal never pursues Sacks. Yet the good doctor panics, bolts madly across a meadow, falls and brutally severs the quadriceps of his left leg. He is lucky he doesn't die on the mountain for he is miles from his village lodging and the nights even in summer are freezing. Almost miraculously he is found crawling back to town by a couple of hunters, a father and son. In short order he is flown to London where he proceeds to experience a profound sense of "alienation" from his leg. He excoriates his surgical team for their lack of bedside manner. That is itself something you rarely see in print or in life: one doctor criticizing another. But the fair-minded Sacks soon comes to realize that the problem goes deeper than his surgeon. It's symtomatic of the healthcare juggernaut as a whole. Sacks has been deliberately left alone with his thoughts and what ensues is a profound dissociation from his leg. He feels it is "no longer part of him," that the leg is "dead," that it will never return to full use. He undergoes a clinically pure example of loss of proprioception. This is the sense we all have of our bodily posture. Nurse Sulu enters Sacks's hospital room one day in alarm. His leg has fallen out of bed and splayed itself at a strange angle. Yet Sacks lies in bed with the distinct impression that the leg is still in bed with him, tidily tucked away. He is shocked upon lifting his head from the pillow. He exhorts Nurse Sulu to move the leg this way and that. He is unable to tell what position she has put the leg in with his eyes closed. In the first half of the book Sacks worked from his own journal and he was careful to leave the fear and exclamations in, his at times irrational circular reasoning. He wants us to know how frightening the whole experience is, not just for himself, but for those in the same predicament. The moment on the mountain pales in comparison to the horrors he experiences in the hospital. Sacks undergoes a profound alteration of body image. The injury, subsequent surgery and casting of his leg has led to desensitization and atrophy until he "forgets" how to use it. He is left abed for 14 days. The second half of the book is a consideration of his experience from a clinical perspective. I don't mean to say that the first part of the book is not of interest, but it is when Sacks begins his consideration of the neurological reasons for his experience that for me the book began to sing. There are fascinating explications of how the brain "sees" the body, as well as the neural correlates for all this. The section of the brain dedicated to body-image, as it turns out, is the somatosensory cortex, part of the parietal lobe. Eventually Sacks leads the reader thoughtfully through the available literature on body image. There isn't much, to be sure. Among these is a work entitled Reflex Paralysis generated by surgeons of the hand during the American Civil War (1861-65). I am glossing over a lot here. The book is an intellectual feast on many levels. It is an almost unbelievably rich feast for the thorough reader. In the end it's a very human book, a book about all of us. Highly recommended.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-03-16 00:00:00 Brian Farmer for some reason I fall in love with this book, I felt it was so honest and real, not to mention the highly interesting phenomenon that it describes.. as always I really loved how doctor Sacks shows us that healing isn't just drugs & procedures there's heart, feelings, harmony... so many amazing things to learn if a person wanted to :) one more thing I loved is teaching us how medicine isn't just solid information.. there's always new things to learn, and new domains to discover.. the only star was removed cause I found some prolongation and repetition in some subjects :\ plus some difficult or weak parts, but maybe that was just due to the translated copy I had however.. in some -great- parts the way of thinking & talking reminded me of a very dear person to my heart.. which made the book even more enjoyable for me :) enjoy it ^_^