If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it.
Interpretation
The quote explores the idea of self-awareness and the profound impact of losing one's sense of self.
Oliver Sacks highlights the critical nature of self-identity, suggesting that physical losses are tangible and can be recognized, while the loss of one's sense of self is deeply insidious and perhaps goes unnoticed by the individual experiencing it. This reflection raises questions about consciousness and the essence of what it means to be human, emphasizing that without a self to perceive it, one cannot comprehend such a loss.
In practice
In a discussion about mental health and identity loss, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of self-awareness.
There will be no one like us when we are gone, but then there is no one like anyone else, ever. When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate - the genetic and neural fate - of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.
In general, people are afraid to acknowledge hallucinations because they immediately see them as a sign of something awful happening to the brain, whereas in most cases they're not.
Dr. Kertesz mentioned to me a case known to him of a farmer who had developed prosopagnosia and in consequence could no longer distinguish (the faces of) his cows, and of another such patient, an attendant in a Natural History Museum, who mistook his own reflection for the diorama of an ape
Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more - it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity.
We see with the eyes, but we see with the brain as well. And seeing with the brain is often called imagination.
I rejoice when I meet gifted young people... I feel the future is in good hands.
Half the world cries Half the world laughs Half the world tries To be the other half
Every man is valued in this world as he shows by his conduct that he wishes to be valued.
We only make peace with our enemies. That's why it's called making peace.
Soft pity enters an iron gate.
I think it's in human nature to want to have more, to compete with the other and, at some level, to be dissatisfied if someone else has more than you.
I act because I can't seem to live with myself if I do not. I don't know any other way to be. It isn't something you can explain; it is just something that you do; it is something that you are.
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