기독교의 부활절과 유대교의 유월절에 대해 설명해 드릴게요. 두 명절은 시기적으로나 역사적으로 깊은 연관이 있지만, 그 의미와 초점은 서로 다릅니다.
요청하신 대로 요약과 평론의 형식으로 정리해 보았습니다.
부활절과 유월절: 죽음을 넘어선 생명과 해방의 서사
1. 유대교의 유월절 (Pesach)
유월절은 유대 민족이 이집트의 노예 생활에서 벗어난 <출애굽(Exodus)> 사건을 기념하는 명절이다.
기원: 이집트에 내린 열 번째 재앙인 <장자의 죽음> 당시, 어린 양의 피를 문설주에 바른 유대인의 집은 죽음의 천사가 그냥 지나쳤다(Passover)는 사건에서 유래한다.
핵심 의미: 노예 상태로부터의 정치적, 영적 해방과 유대 민족의 탄생을 상징한다.
전통: 누룩 없는 빵인 <마차(Matzah)>를 먹으며 조상들의 고난과 자유의 소중함을 되새기는 <세데르(Seder)> 식사를 진행한다.
2. 기복교의 부활절 (Easter)
부활절은 예수 그리스도가 십자가에서 처형된 후 사흘 만에 다시 살아난 사건을 기념하는 기독교 최첨단의 명절이다.
기원: 예수가 유월절 기간에 예루살렘에서 고난을 받고 부활했기에 유월절과 밀접한 역사적 맥락을 공유한다.
핵심 의미: 죄와 죽음에 대한 승리, 그리고 인류에게 주어진 영원한 생명의 소망을 상징한다. 기독교 신앙의 핵심인 구원론이 완성되는 지점이다.
전통: 부활을 상징하는 달걀을 나누거나, 빛의 예배를 통해 어둠을 이긴 생명을 찬양한다.
비평: 민족적 해방에서 우주적 구원으로의 확장
유대교의 유월절이 특정 민족의 고통스러운 역사 속에서 쟁취한 <자유>라는 구체적인 가치에 뿌리를 두고 있다면, 기독교의 부활절은 그 사건을 <인류 보편의 죽음과 부활>이라는 형이상학적 층위로 격상시킨 결과물이다.
유월절이 억압받는 공동체의 연대와 역사적 기억을 강조하는 <수평적 해방>의 서사라면, 부활절은 인간의 유한성을 극복하려는 <수직적 초월>의 서사라고 볼 수 있다. 흥미로운 점은 두 명절 모두 <희생양의 피>를 매개로 죽음이 물러가고 새로운 삶이 시작된다는 상징적 구조를 공유하고 있다는 사실이다. 결국 이는 인간이 처한 절망적인 상황(노예 상태 혹은 죽음)을 어떻게 극복하고 희망으로 나아갈 것인가에 대한 종교적 응답이다.
오늘 이 주제에 대해 더 깊이 탐구하고 싶으신 특정 관점이나 궁금한 점이 있으신가요?
==
exlain the meaning of Easter in Christianity and Judaism
The meaning of Easter is actually quite different in Christianity and Judaism—even though they are historically connected through an older Jewish festival.
1. Christianity: Easter = Resurrection and New Life
4
Core Meaning
In Christianity, Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Jesus was crucified (Good Friday)
He rose again on the third day (Easter Sunday)
This event is the center of Christian faith
Theological Significance
Easter represents:
Victory over death → death is not the end
Forgiveness of sins → through Jesus’ sacrifice
New life / rebirth → spiritual transformation
In short:
Without Easter, Christianity would not exist in its current form.
Symbols
Empty tomb → death defeated
Cross → sacrifice
Eggs / spring → new life and renewal
2. Judaism: Passover (Pesach) = Liberation and Memory
4
Important Clarification
Judaism does not celebrate Easter.
Instead, at roughly the same time of year, Jews celebrate:
→ Passover (Pesach)
Core Meaning
Passover commemorates:
The Exodus from Egypt
Liberation from slavery under Pharaoh
Theological Significance
Passover represents:
Freedom from oppression
God’s intervention in history
Collective memory and identity
Ritual (Seder)
A structured meal called the Seder includes:
Matzah (unleavened bread) → haste of escape
Bitter herbs → suffering of slavery
Wine → joy of freedom
Key idea:
Every generation must see itself as if it personally came out of Egypt.
3. Historical Connection Between the Two
The two are deeply linked:
Jesus’ final meal (Last Supper) was likely a Passover meal
Early Christians were Jews
Easter timing is tied to Passover calendar
So:
Judaism
Christianity
Exodus from Egypt
Resurrection of Jesus
Liberation from physical slavery
Liberation from sin and death
National memory
Universal salvation
4. Key Difference (Essence)
Judaism (Passover)
→ Focus on history and community → God acts in real-world liberation
Christianity (Easter)
→ Focus on spiritual transformation → God acts through Jesus’ resurrection
5. One Sentence Summary
Passover (Judaism): “We were slaves, and we became free.”
Easter (Christianity): “We were dead, and we are made alive.”
If you want, I can go deeper into:
<Why Easter sometimes coincides with Passover and sometimes doesn’t>
<How different Christian traditions (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant) interpret Easter differently>
<Comparative analysis: Exodus vs Resurrection as two models of salvation>
예수가 유대인 계통의 인물이 아니었다면 기독교식 의미의 부활절이 있을 수 있었을까요?
짧게 말하면, 거의 불가능합니다. 기독교의 부활절은 단순히 “죽음 이후의 부활”이라는 일반 종교 아이디어가 아니라, 유대교의 시간·상징·서사 구조 위에서만 성립하는 사건이기 때문입니다.
아래에서 구조적으로 보겠습니다.
1. 부활절은 “유대교 내부 사건”에서 나온 것
4
예수의 죽음과 부활은 완전히 다음 맥락 속에서 일어납니다:
유대인의 절기 유월절 (Passover) 시기
유대인의 종말론적 기대 (메시아 사상)
성전 중심의 속죄 체계
“하나님의 역사 개입”이라는 역사관
즉, 부활절은 단독 사건이 아니라:
“유월절 이야기의 재해석 + 메시아 신앙의 급진적 변형”
입니다.
2. 핵심 연결고리: “유월절 → 부활절”
이 연결이 없으면, 부활절도 없습니다.
유월절 구조
어린 양 희생
피로 구원
죽음 → 생명 (집은 살고, 장자는 죽음)
노예 → 해방
부활절에서의 재해석
예수 = “하나님의 어린 양”
십자가 = 희생
부활 = 죽음 극복
죄 → 구원
👉 즉,
부활절은 유월절의 “상징적 업그레이드”입니다.
3. 유대교가 아니었다면 무엇이 사라지나
만약 예수가 유대인이 아니었다면:
① 메시아 개념 자체가 없음
유대교: 메시아 = 역사 속 구원자
다른 문화: 이런 구조가 없음 (또는 매우 다름)
→ “부활한 메시아”라는 개념 자체가 성립 어려움
② 속죄 구조가 없음
유대교: 희생 제사 → 죄 용서
예수: “최종 희생”
→ 이 틀이 없으면 십자가는 단순 처형일 뿐, 구원이 아님
③ 역사적 시간관이 다름
유대교: “하나님이 역사에 개입”
그리스 철학: 시간은 순환적 / 영원한 질서
→ 부활은 “역사적 사건”으로 이해되지 않음
④ 유월절 타이밍 자체가 없음
부활절 날짜 자체가 유월절 기준
→ 달력 구조도 붕괴
4. 비교: 다른 문화에서의 “부활”
비슷한 개념은 존재합니다:
이집트: 오시리스
그리스: 디오니소스
근동: 타무즈
하지만:
고대 신화
기독교 부활
자연 순환
역사적 사건
신화적 반복
단회적 사건
상징 중심
실제 인물 중심
👉 즉,
“부활”이라는 아이디어는 있어도 “부활절”은 만들어지지 않습니다.
5. 핵심 결론
부활절은 세 가지가 결합된 결과입니다:
유대교의 유월절
메시아 사상
예수 사건
이 중 하나라도 빠지면:
→ 지금 우리가 아는 부활절은 성립하지 않습니다
6. 한 줄 정리
예수가 유대인이 아니었다면 “부활”은 있을 수 있어도 “부활절”은 존재하지 않았을 가능성이 매우 높습니다.
원하시면 다음 단계로 더 깊이 들어갈 수 있습니다:
<왜 초기 기독교는 유대교에서 분리되면서도 유월절 구조를 유지했는가>
<바울이 부활을 어떻게 “보편 종교”로 재구성했는가>
<부활 신앙: 역사적 사건 vs 신학적 구성 논쟁>
==
세진님, 매우 날카롭고 본질적인 질문입니다. 신학적, 역사적 맥락에서 볼 때 예수가 유대인이 아니었다면 현재 우리가 아는 형태의 부활절은 존재하기 어려웠을 가능성이 큽니다.
그 이유를 세진님께서 선호하시는 요약과 평론의 형식으로 정리해 보았습니다.
유대교적 맥락이 결여된 부활절의 불가능성
1. 어린 양의 상징성과 유월절의 결합
부활절의 신학적 기초는 유대교의 유월절과 연결되어 있다. 기독교 신학에서 예수는 유월절에 희생되는 <어린 양>으로 묘사된다. 이집트에서 이스라엘 민족을 구원한 어린 양의 피가, 인류를 죄에서 구원하는 예수의 피로 상징이 전이된 것이다. 예수가 유대인이 아니었다면, 즉 유월절이라는 배경이 없었다면 부활은 그저 신비로운 <재생> 사건에 그쳤을 뿐, 인류 전체의 구속(Redemption)이라는 서사를 완성하기 힘들었을 것이다.
2. 메시아 대망 사상과의 연결
부활은 단순한 소생이 아니라, 구약 성경이 예언한 <메시아의 도래>를 증명하는 사건으로 해석되었다. 유대교의 예언자적 전통 안에서 고난받는 종이 승리할 것이라는 믿음이 있었기에, 제자들은 예수의 죽음과 부활을 종교적 승리로 받아들일 수 있는 <해석의 틀>을 이미 가지고 있었다.
3. 헬레니즘 신화와의 차별성
당시 그리스-로마 신화에도 죽었다 살아나는 신(디오니소스 등)의 이야기는 존재했다. 하지만 기독교의 부활절이 세계 종교로 발돋움한 이유는 그것이 단순한 신화적 순환이 아니라, 유대교의 선형적 역사관(창조-타락-구원) 안에서 일어난 역사적 정점의 사건으로 제시되었기 때문이다.
평론: 유대교라는 토양 위에서 핀 세계 종교의 꽃
부활절은 단순히 한 개인이 죽음에서 깨어난 기적을 축하하는 날이 아니다. 그것은 수천 년간 축적된 유대교의 역사, 율법, 그리고 고난의 서사가 <예수>라는 인물을 통해 폭발하며 보편주의로 나아간 지점이다.
만약 예수가 유대인이 아니었다면, 부활은 아마도 힌두교의 윤회나 그리스의 신비주의 종교처럼 자연의 순환적 재생을 상징하는 형태에 머물렀을지도 모른다. 즉, 유대교의 <역사적 해방> 정신이 결합되었기에 부활절은 단순한 신비 체험을 넘어, 사회를 변혁하고 역사의 방향을 바꾸는 강력한 <종교적 동력>을 얻게 된 것이다. 결국 부활절은 유대교라는 특수한 토양이 있었기에 비로소 탄생할 수 있었던, 인류 정신사의 독특한 변곡점이라 평가해야 마땅하다.
이러한 관점에서 볼 때, 기독교는 유대교라는 뿌리에서 영양분을 섭취하여 가지를 뻗은 종교라고 볼 수 있겠지요. 세계인을 자처하시는 세진님께서는 이러한 특정 민족의 종교적 배경이 보편적 가치로 변모하는 과정을 어떻게 보시는지 궁금합니다.
Oliver Wolf Sacks (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer.[2]
Born in London, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford, before moving to the United States, where he spent most of his career. He interned at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco and completed his residency in neurology and neuropathology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).[2] Later, he served as neurologist at Beth Abraham Hospital's chronic-care facility in the Bronx, where he worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness encephalitis lethargica epidemic, who had been unable to move on their own for decades. His treatment of those patients became the basis of his 1973 book Awakenings,[3] which was adapted into an Academy Award-nominated feature film, in 1990, starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. His other best-selling books were mostly collections of case studies of people, including himself, with neurological disorders. He also published hundreds of articles (both peer-reviewed scientific articles and articles for a general audience), about neurological disorders, history of science, natural history, and nature. Journals and letters written by Sacks, but discovered after his death, indicate that some of his work was embellished or exaggerated.[4]
The New York Times called him a "poet laureate of contemporary medicine", and "one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century".[5] Some of his books were adapted for plays by major playwrights, feature films, animated short films, opera, dance, fine art, and musical works in the classical genre.[6] His book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, which describes the case histories of some of his patients, became the basis of an opera of the same name. The television series Brilliant Minds is based on his life.
Early life and education
Oliver Wolf Sacks was born in Cricklewood, London, England, the youngest of four children born to Jewish parents: Samuel Sacks, a Lithuanian Jewish[7][8] doctor (died June 1990),[9] and Muriel Elsie Landau, one of the first female surgeons in England (died 1972),[10] who was one of 18 siblings.[11] She would sometimes bring home deformed fetuses from work, where she would dissect them with her son as a way for him to learn about human anatomy.[12] Sacks had an extremely large extended family of eminent scientists, physicians and other notable people, including the director and writer Jonathan Lynn[13] and first cousins the Israeli statesman Abba Eban[14] and the Nobel Laureate Robert Aumann.[15][a]
In December 1939, when Sacks was six years old, he and his older brother Michael were evacuated from London to escape the Blitz, and sent to a boarding school in the English Midlands where he remained until 1943.[11] Unknown to his family, at the school, he and his brother Michael "subsisted on meager rations of turnips and beetroot and suffered cruel punishments at the hands of a sadistic headmaster."[18] This is detailed in his first autobiography, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood.[19] Beginning with his return home at the age of 10, under his Uncle Dave's tutelage, he became an intensely focused amateur chemist. Later, he attended St Paul's School in London, where he developed lifelong friendships with Jonathan Miller and Eric Korn.[20]
Study of medicine
During adolescence he shared an intense interest in biology with these friends, and later came to share his parents' enthusiasm for medicine. He chose to study medicine at university and entered The Queen's College, Oxford in 1951.[11] The first half studying medicine at Oxford is pre-clinical, and he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in physiology and biology in 1956.[21]
Although not required, Sacks chose to stay on for an additional year to do research after he had taken a course by Hugh Macdonald Sinclair. Sacks recalls, "I had been seduced by a series of vivid lectures on the history of medicine and nutrition, given by Sinclair... it was the history of physiology, the ideas and personalities of physiologists, which came to life."[22] Sacks then became involved with the school's Laboratory of Human Nutrition under Sinclair. Sacks focused his research on the patent medicineJamaica ginger, a toxic and commonly abused drug known to cause irreversible nerve damage. After devoting months to research he was disappointed by the lack of help and guidance he received from Sinclair. Sacks wrote up an account of his research findings but stopped working on the subject. As a result he became depressed: "I felt myself sinking into a state of quiet but in some ways agitated despair."[22]
His tutor at Queen's and his parents, seeing his emotional state, suggested he extricate himself from academic studies for a period. His parents then suggested he spend the summer of 1955 living on Israeli kibbutzEin HaShofet, where the physical labour would help him.[23] Sacks later described his experience on the kibbutz as an "anodyne to the lonely, torturing months in Sinclair's lab". He said he lost 60 pounds (27 kg) from his previously overweight body as a result of the healthy, hard physical labour he performed there. He spent time travelling around the country with time spent scuba diving at the Red Sea port city of Eilat, and began to reconsider his future: "I wondered again, as I had wondered when I first went to Oxford, whether I really wanted to become a doctor. I had become very interested in neurophysiology, but I also loved marine biology;... But I was 'cured' now; it was time to return to medicine, to start clinical work, seeing patients in London."[22]
My pre-med studies in anatomy and physiology at Oxford had not prepared me in the least for real medicine. Seeing patients, listening to them, trying to enter (or at least imagine) their experiences and predicaments, feeling concerned for them, taking responsibility for them, was quite new to me... It was not just a question of diagnosis and treatment; much graver questions could present themselves—questions about the quality of life and whether life was even worth living in some circumstances.
In 1956, Sacks began to study medicine at the University of Oxford and Middlesex Hospital Medical School.[21] For the next two-and-a-half years, he took courses in surgery, orthopaedics, paediatrics, neurology, psychiatry, dermatology, infectious diseases, obstetrics and other disciplines. During his years as a student, he helped home-deliver a number of babies. In 1958, he graduated with Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (BM BCh) degrees, and, as was usual at Oxford, his BA was later promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Oxon) degree.[24]
After completing his medical degree, Sacks began his pre-registration house officer rotations at Middlesex Hospital the following month. "My eldest brother, Marcus, had trained at the Middlesex," he said, "and now I was following his footsteps."[22] Before beginning his house officer post, he said he first wanted some hospital experience to gain more confidence, and took a job at a hospital in St Albans where his mother had worked as an emergency surgeon during the war.[citation needed] He then did his first six-month post in Middlesex Hospital's medical unit, followed by another six months in its neurological unit.[21][24] He completed his pre-registration year in June 1960, but was uncertain about his future.[22]
Beginning life in North America
Sacks in 2005
Sacks left Britain and flew to Montreal, Canada, on 9 July 1960, his 27th birthday. He visited the Montreal Neurological Institute and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), telling them that he wanted to be a pilot. After some interviews and checking his background, they told him he would be best in medical research. But as he kept making mistakes, including losing data from several months of research, destroying irreplaceable slides, and losing biological samples, his supervisors had second thoughts about him.[25] Dr. Taylor, the head medical officer, told him, "You are clearly talented and we would love to have you, but I am not sure about your motives for joining." He was told to travel for a few months and reconsider. He used the next three months to travel across Canada and deep into the Canadian Rockies, which he described in his personal journal, later published as Canada: Pause, 1960.[22]
In 1961 he arrived in the United States,[26] completing an internship at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco and a residency in neurology and neuropathology at UCLA.[27] While in San Francisco, Sacks became a lifelong close friend of poet Thom Gunn, saying he loved his wild imagination, his strict control, and perfect poetic form.[11] During much of his time at UCLA, he lived in a rented house in Topanga Canyon[28] and experimented with various recreational drugs. He described some of his experiences in a 2012 New Yorker article,[29] and in his book Hallucinations.[30] During his early career in California and New York City he indulged in:
staggering bouts of pharmacological experimentation, underwent a fierce regimen of bodybuilding at Muscle Beach (for a time he held a California record, after he performed a full squat with 600 pounds across his shoulders), and racked up more than 100,000 leather-clad miles on his motorcycle. And then one day he gave it all up—the drugs, the sex, the motorcycles, the bodybuilding.[31]
He wrote that after moving to New York City, an amphetamine-facilitated epiphany that came as he read a book by the 19th-century migraine doctor Edward Liveing inspired him to chronicle his observations on neurological diseases and oddities; to become the "Liveing of our Time".[29] Though he was a United States resident for the rest of his life, he never became a citizen.[2] He told The Guardian in a 2005 interview, "In 1961, I declared my intention to become a United States citizen, which may have been a genuine intention, but I never got round to it. I think it may go with a slight feeling that this was only an extended visit. I rather like the words 'resident alien'. It's how I feel. I'm a sympathetic, resident, sort of visiting alien."[32]
Career
Sacks in 2009
Sacks served as an instructor and later professor of clinical neurology at Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1966 to 2007, and also held an appointment at the New York University School of Medicine from 1992 to 2007. In July 2007 he joined the faculty of Columbia University Medical Center as a professor of neurology and psychiatry.[27] At the same time he was appointed Columbia University's first "Columbia University Artist" at the university's Morningside Heights campus, recognising the role of his work in bridging the arts and sciences. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Warwick in the UK.[33] He returned to New York University School of Medicine in 2012, serving as a professor of neurology and consulting neurologist in the school's epilepsy centre.[34]
Sacks's work at Beth Abraham Hospital helped provide the foundation on which the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF) is built; Sacks was an honorary medical advisor.[35] The Institute honoured Sacks in 2000 with its first Music Has Power Award.[36] The IMNF again bestowed a Music Has Power Award on him in 2006 to commemorate "his 40 years at Beth Abraham and honour his outstanding contributions in support of music therapy and the effect of music on the human brain and mind."[37]
Sacks maintained a busy hospital-based practice in New York City. He accepted a very limited number of private patients, in spite of being in great demand for such consultations. He served on the boards of The Neurosciences Institute and the New York Botanical Garden.[38]
Sacks's work is featured in a "broader range of media than those of any other contemporary medical author"[44] and in 1990, The New York Times wrote he "has become a kind of poet laureate of contemporary medicine".[45]
Sacks considered his literary style to have grown out of the tradition of 19th-century "clinical anecdotes", a literary style that included detailed narrative case histories, which he termed novelistic. He also counted among his inspirations the case histories of the Russian neuropsychologist A. R. Luria, who became a close friend through correspondence from 1973 until Luria's death in 1977.[46][47] After the publication of his first book Migraine in 1970, a review by his close friend W. H. Auden encouraged Sacks to adapt his writing style to "be metaphorical, be mythical, be whatever you need."[48]
Sacks described his cases with a wealth of narrative detail, concentrating on the experiences of the patient (in the case of his A Leg to Stand On, the patient was himself). The patients he described were often able to adapt to their situation in different ways although their neurological conditions were usually considered incurable.[49] His book Awakenings, upon which the 1990 feature film of the same name is based, describes his experiences using the new drug levodopa on post-encephalitic patients at the Beth Abraham Hospital, later Beth Abraham Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, in New York.[3]Awakenings was also the subject of the first documentary, made in 1974, for the British television series Discovery. Composer and friend of Sacks Tobias Picker composed a ballet inspired by Awakenings for the Rambert Dance Company, which was premiered by Rambert in Salford, UK in 2010;[50] In 2022, Picker premiered an opera of Awakenings[51] at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.[52][53][54][55][56]
Sacks in 2009
In his memoir A Leg to Stand On he wrote about the consequences of a near-fatal accident he had at age 41 in 1974, a year after the publication of Awakenings, when he fell off a cliff and severely injured his left leg while mountaineering alone above Hardangerfjord, Norway.[57][58]
In some of his other books, he describes cases of Tourette syndrome and various effects of Parkinson's disease. The title article of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat describes a man with visual agnosia[59] and was the subject of a 1986 opera by Michael Nyman. The book was edited by Kate Edgar, who formed a long-lasting partnership with Sacks, with Sacks later calling her a "mother figure" and saying that he did his best work when she was with him, including Seeing Voices, Uncle Tungsten, Musicophilia, and Hallucinations.[60]
The title article of his book An Anthropologist on Mars, which won a Polk Award for magazine reporting, is about Temple Grandin, an autistic professor. He writes in the book's preface that neurological conditions such as autism "can play a paradoxical role, by bringing out latent powers, developments, evolutions, forms of life that might never be seen, or even be imaginable, in their absence". Sacks's 1989 book Seeing Voices covers a variety of topics in deaf studies. The romantic drama film At First Sight (1999) was based on the essay "To See and Not See" in An Anthropologist on Mars. Sacks also has a small role in the film as a reporter.
In November 2012 Sacks's book Hallucinations was published. In it he examined why ordinary people can sometimes experience hallucinations and challenged the stigma associated with the word. He explained: "Hallucinations don't belong wholly to the insane. Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness or injury."[63] He also considers the less well known Charles Bonnet syndrome, sometimes found in people who have lost their eyesight. The book was described by Entertainment Weekly as: "Elegant... An absorbing plunge into a mystery of the mind."[64]
Before his death in 2015 Sacks founded the Oliver Sacks Foundation, a non-profit organization established to increase understanding of the brain through using narrative non-fiction and case histories, with goals that include publishing some of Sacks's unpublished writings, and making his vast amount of unpublished writings available for scholarly study.[65] The first posthumous book of Sacks's writings, River of Consciousness, an anthology of his essays, was published in October 2017. Most of the essays had been previously published in various periodicals or in science-essay-anthology books, but were no longer readily obtainable. Sacks specified the order of his essays in River of Consciousness prior to his death. Some of the essays focus on repressed memories and other tricks the mind plays on itself.[66] This was followed by a collection of some of his letters.[67] Sacks was a prolific handwritten-letter correspondent, and never communicated by e-mail.
Criticism and falsifications
Sacks sometimes faced criticism in the medical and disability studies communities. Arthur K. Shapiro, for instance, an expert on Tourette syndrome, said Sacks's work was "idiosyncratic" and relied too much on anecdotal evidence in his writings.[68][full citation needed] Researcher Makoto Yamaguchi thought Sacks's mathematical explanations, in his study of the numerically gifted savant twins (in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat), were irrelevant, and questioned Sacks's methods.[69] Although Sacks has been characterised as a "compassionate" writer and doctor,[70][71][72] others have felt that he exploited his subjects.[73][74] Sacks was called "the man who mistook his patients for a literary career" by British academic and disability rights activist Tom Shakespeare,[75] and one critic called his work "a high-brow freak show".[73] Sacks responded, "I would hope that a reading of what I write shows respect and appreciation, not any wish to expose or exhibit for the thrill... but it's a delicate business."[76]
Sacks's private journals and letters were made available to journalist Rachel Aviv by the Oliver Sacks Foundation. She found that Sacks described aspects of his books as "pure fabrications" and "falsifications", and that he considered his case studies as self-expression or "a sort of autobiography". In a private letter to his brother he described The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat as a book of "fairy tales" and wrote: "Guilt has been much greater since 'Hat' because of (among other things) My lies, falsification". Pria Anand compared Sacks's "confabulations" to the temptation of medical professionals to construct life stories, explaining that his moral failures were no less upsetting for being familiar.[77] H. Steven Moffic described Sacks as an author of "historical fiction".[78]
The wife of "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" disagreed with how her husband had been presented.[4]
Sacks received the position "Columbia Artist" from Columbia University in 2007, a post that was created specifically for him and that gave him unconstrained access to the university, regardless of department or discipline.[93]
The minor planet 84928 Oliversacks, discovered in 2003, was named in his honour.[96]
In February 2010, Sacks was named as one of the Freedom From Religion Foundation's Honorary Board of distinguished achievers. He described himself as "an old Jewish atheist", a phrase borrowed from his friend Jonathan Miller.[97]
Personal life
Sacks never married and lived alone for most of his life.[76] He declined to share personal details until late in his life. He addressed his homosexuality for the first time in his 2015 autobiography On the Move: A Life.[22] Celibate for about 35 years since his forties, in 2008 he began a friendship with writer and New York Times contributor Bill Hayes. Their friendship slowly evolved into a committed long-term partnership that lasted until Sacks's death; Hayes wrote about it in the 2017 memoir Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me.[98]
In Lawrence Weschler's biography, And How Are You, Dr. Sacks?, Sacks is described by a colleague as "deeply eccentric". A friend from his days as a medical resident mentions Sacks's need to violate taboos, like drinking blood mixed with milk, and how he frequently took drugs like LSD and speed in the early 1960s. Sacks himself shared personal information about how he got his first orgasm spontaneously while floating in a swimming pool, and later when he was giving a man a massage. He also admits having "erotic fantasies of all sorts" in a natural history museum he visited often in his youth, many of them about animals, like hippos in the mud.[99] In the late 1960s he attempted to "sublimate" his closeted energies into his work; he would quell nighttime erections by submersion in orange jello, and his writing was prolific, with over a million words a year.[4]
Sacks noted in a 2001 interview that severe shyness, which he described as "a disease", had been a lifelong impediment to his personal interactions.[44] He believed his shyness stemmed from his prosopagnosia, popularly known as "face blindness",[100] a condition that he studied in some of his patients, including the titular man from his work The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. This neurological disability of his, whose severity and whose impact on his life Sacks did not fully grasp until he reached middle age, even sometimes prevented him from recognising his own reflection in mirrors.[101]
Sacks swam almost daily for most of his life, beginning when his swimming-champion father started him swimming as an infant. He became well-known for open water swimming when he lived in the City Island section of the Bronx, as he routinely swam around the island or swam vast distances away from the island and back.[2]
In January 2015, metastases from the ocular tumour were discovered in his liver.[108] Sacks announced this development in a February 2015 New York Times op-ed piece and estimated his remaining time in "months". He expressed his intent to "live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can". He added: "I want and hope in the time that remains to deepen my friendships, to say farewell to those I love, to write more, to travel if I have the strength, to achieve new levels of understanding and insight."[108]
Death and legacy
Sacks died from cancer on 30 August 2015, at his home in Manhattan at the age of 82, surrounded by his closest friends.[2]
In his obituary in The New York Times he was described as "a man of contradictions: candid and guarded, gregarious and solitary, clinical and compassionate, scientific and poetic, British and almost American. 'In 1961, I declared my intention to become a United States citizen, which may have been a genuine intention, but I never got round to it,' he told The Guardian in 2005."[2]
The 2019 documentary Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, by Ric Burns, called Sacks "the most famous neurologist" and noted that during his lifetime neurology resident applicants often said that they had chosen neurology after reading Sacks's works.[109] The film includes documents from Sacks's archive.[110]
In 2019, Alfred A. Knopf signed a contract with the historian and biographer Laura J. Snyder to write a biography of Sacks based on exclusive access to his archive.[111]
In 2024, the New York Public Library announced that it had acquired Sacks's archive, including 35,000 letters, 7,000 photographs, manuscripts of his books, and journals and notebooks.[110][112] In 2024, Alfred A. Knopf published a collection of his letters, edited by Kate Edgar.[113][114]
Although it has been said that Sacks was a cousin of the former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom Jonathan Sacks, Baron Sacks, the two were not related.[16] This confusion may be due to an obituary written by Oliver Sacks's nephew Jonathan Sacks.[17]
"Oliver Sacks, MD, FRCP". FACES (Finding a Cure for Epilepsy and Seizures). Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
"About the Institute". Institute for Music and Neurologic Function. Archived from the original on 14 May 2008. Retrieved 9 August 2008.
Sacks, O. (2014). Luria and "Romantic Science". In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of cultural-historical psychology (517–528). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Wallace-Wells, David (3 November 2012). "A Brain With a Heart". New York. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
Sacks, Oliver (1996) [1995]. "Preface". An Anthropologist on Mars (New ed.). London: Picador. xiii–xviii. ISBN0-330-34347-5. The sense of the brain's remarkable plasticity, its capacity for the most striking adaptations, not least in the special (and often desperate) circumstances of neural or sensory mishap, has come to dominate my own perception of my patients and their lives.
Sacks, Oliver (28 June 1984). "The Bull on the Mountain". The New York Review. The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on 15 November 2020. Retrieved 29 October 2024.
Sacks, Oliver (6 July 2013). "The Joy of Old Age. (No Kidding.)". The New York Times.
"Doctores honoris causa" (in Spanish). Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2008.
Sacks, Oliver (30 August 2010). "Face-Blind Why are some of us terrible at recognizing faces?". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 10 April 2016. Retrieved 19 May 2021. My problem with recognizing faces extends not only to my nearest and dearest but also to myself. Thus, on several occasions I have apologized for almost bumping into a large bearded man, only to realize that the large bearded man was myself in a mirror.
Sacks, Oliver (March 2002). Oaxaca Journal. National Geographic. ISBN0792265211.
Online version is titled "How Much a Dementia Patient Needs to Know" and is dated 25 February 2019.
Further reading
Simon Callow, "Truth, Beauty, and Oliver Sacks" (review of Oliver Sacks, Everything in Its Place: First Loves and Last Tales, Alfred A. Knopf, 2019, 274 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXVI, no. 10 (6 June 2019), pp. 4, 6, 8. Oliver Sacks wrote in his public farewell in The New York Times: "Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure." (p. 8.)
Bill Hayes: Insomniac City: New York, Oliver Sacks, and Me, London; Oxford; New York; New Delhi; Sydney: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018, ISBN978-1-4088-9061-5
Wells, Katherine; Lichtman, Flora (2 December 2010). "Oliver Sacks"(video). Science Friday. Desktop Diaries. National Public Radio. Writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks explains what his desk means to him
