British neurologist Oliver Sacks believes that listening to patients should be at the heart of medicine. In his 2007 book entitled ‘Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain,’ he explores the place of melody in the human brain that is ‘capable of expressing and evoking emotions and mental states that go beyond language.’ Music, thus, has a healing power in cases of injury or illness.
According to Sacks, the science of the brain has changed beyond belief over the past 50 years, especially in the last 20 or 30. He says the brain responds to music, in times of making decisions or moments of intense activity. Science, therefore, should forge farther into the physiology of thought and imagination.
Sacks has made empathy with patients his personal and professional identity. He spends hours every day answering letters that arrive from all corners of the globe. He also believes that ‘one of the main problems is the lack of communication between physicians and patients.’ For him, too, science and philosophy are different approaches and perspectives but should learn from each other. To him, philosophers should come into labs and scientists should be more learned in philosophy as well.
Sacks works on two more upcoming books: one dealing with visual hallucinations and another on memory and imagination.
Via The Miami Herald
