Fictional father?: Oliver Sacks and the revalidation of pathography

Med Humanit. 2013 Dec 1;39(2):105-14. doi: 10.1136/medhum-2012-010301. Epub 2013 Mar 20.

Abstract

This paper is a revalidation of Oliver Sacks's role in the development of medicine's narrative turn and, as such, a reinterpretation of the history of narrative in medicine. It suggests that, from the late 1960s, Sacks pioneered in his 'Romantic Science' a new medical mode that reunited the seemingly incommensurable art and science of medicine while also offering a way for medical humanities to shape clinical reasoning more effectively.

Publication types

  • Biography
  • Historical Article

MeSH terms

  • History, 20th Century
  • History, 21st Century
  • Humanities / history*
  • Humans
  • Narration / history*
  • Neurology / history*

Personal name as subject

  • Oliver Sacks