I miss you, Oliver Sacks. ( )

Lovely, marvelous science writing by one of the very best. Beautiful essays, most about consciousness-related things, but not a single-topic book by any means. What a great writer. ( )

Author and neuroscientist Oliver Sacks is known for his case studies of our weird and wonderful brains - whether talking about perfect pitch in Musicophilia or common hallucinations of hearing one's name when no one's around. The ten essays collected in The River of Consciousness, some of which had been previously published, showcases the range of Sacks' interests and studies, from botany and evolution to the nature of consciousness itself, and sometimes with specific subjects like Darwin and Freud.

Each essay was an erudite and wide-ranging exploration of its topic. I especially enjoyed "The Fallibility of Memory" and "Scotoma: Forgetting and Neglect in Science." The first explores memory and reflects on some of the mistakes we can make, such as "remembering" a story we've been told. The second discusses the variety of ways scientific advances have been made, and what sometimes gets forgotten until it's rediscovered. The titular essay, "The River of Consciousness", hews closets to neuroscience, and was a mind-bending meditation on what consciousness actually is and how we experience it. An excellent, challenging read. ( )

In his previous books, Oliver Sacks had addressed questions of the brain and mind through the lens of case histories of individuals with neurological disorders. Recently, however, he had been reflecting on his experiences with such patients in the context of a lifetime of medical practice, and in light of recent neuroscientific evidence and theories. The River of Consciousness will be a broader and more direct look at how the brain and mind work, as always, incorporating Sacks' rich historical and personal context.

Advances in neuroscience have revolutionised our ability to visualise the brain in action. For the first time we are able to close the gap between the philosophical questions which have consumed the world's thinkers since the eighteenth century and the true physiological basis of perception and consciousness. In The River of Consciousness, Sacks will examine questions of memory, time, and consciousness. How do we think, how do we remember? Do different individuals have different speeds or ways of thinking? Is memory reliable? How do the neural correlates of memory differ for true memories and false memories? How do we construct our sense of time, our visual world? What is consciousness, neurologically speaking? And most importantly, what is creativity?

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Sacks-Le-fleuve-de-la-conscience/1079466
> Psychologies Magazine N°393 – Janvier 2019 : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kHTgN-n1TYHnPIJiq3r4jeJk2JDMg8OR/view?usp=shari...