TOW #26: Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks (IRB)

     In Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks, a physician with a focus in neurology, chronicles the enormous range of ways music reacts with our brains. He writes to an audience of high schoolers or older, and though he does often slip in medical terms that the average teenager won't recognize, they don't detract from a reader's understanding. Through Musicophilia, Sacks hopes to share his interest in the brain and music with the world, and he does so by recounting the stories of his many patients in very personal ways, often including direct quotes from the patients themselves.
     Sacks provides detailed profiles of his patients and their disorder or ability in order to truly show his audience the effects of that patient's condition. In the section about musical hallucinations, he writes: "Michael B. has very clear musical hallucinations. [...] Michael first complained of this when he was seven, saying, 'I'm hearing music in my head. ... I have to check the radio to see if it's really on.' [... At times he] seems to be in what his mother calls 'acoustic agony.' He cries, 'Take it out of my head. Take it away!' [...] 'Last evening, Michael was very happy because his internal music stopped for about fifteen seconds. This has never happened before.'" (68-69). Through these stories, Sacks effectively introduces the condition and then goes on to describe its true effects through direct quotes from the patients or people close to them. This gives readers a personal understanding of the disorder, since they hear it directly from the person who is experiencing it. This story in particular gives readers a new perspective on the severity of musical hallucinations in the final quote, when Michael B.'s mother says that "about fifteen seconds" without music was something that had never occurred in Michael's life. Often, Sacks follows up his explanation of the condition and its effects with a section (usually a footnote) on how the patient is doing today. Here, he quotes Michael's mother: "Michael, who is now twelve and in seventh grade, continues to hear nonstop music. He seems to be better able to cope with it [...] He loves to compose his own music, and he has perfect pitch." (69). Through this, Sacks gives readers resolution. Many of the other stories about musical hallucinations end differently (the patients' hallucinations often go away with the help of medicine), and the contrast between the stories piques the audience's interest by exposing them to the diversity of musical disorders.
     Through much of Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks provides readers with detailed stories about his patients by spanning their struggles with the disease, the treatments they tried, and how they are doing today. These personal stories and their seamless integration of direct patient quotes are intriguing to the audience, and effectively convey Sacks' interest in the brain and music. Surely, it will even inspire some readers to pursue the topics Sacks covers even further.

Musical Hallucinations:

 For people with musical hallucinations, music constantly runs through their minds, and it is often impossible to turn off.

(Source: http://hearinginstitute.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/notesandneurons.png)