As a neurologist, Oliver Sacks is intrigued by individuals adapting and surviving despite difference. He’s expressed this interest in many of his books such as Awakenings (which was later made into the movie, The Awakening), An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales, and more. In his latest book, Seeing Voices, Sacks discovers deafness and sign language.

Sacks became interested in the deaf after reading a book. For the first time in his life, Sacks thought about what it might be like to develop as a person without language. Through his work as a neurologist, he has watched individuals adjust to losing their hearing due to accidents. But, to consider deafness at birth is another story.

In Seeing Voices, Sacks tells the stories of how deaf people have adapted their lives and how their lives have changed over the course of time with the development of new technology.

To hear more about deafness and its culture, click on the link below.

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