AwakeningsThe classic account of survivors of the sleeping-sickness during the great epidemic just after World War I—and their return to the world after decades of “sleep.” • From the distinguished neurologist and the bestselling author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat “One of the most beautifully composed and moving works of our time." —The Washington Post Awakenings—which inspired the major motion picture starring Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams—is the remarkable story of a group of patients who contracted sleeping-sickness during the great epidemic just after World War I. Frozen for decades in a trance-like state, these men and women were given up as hopeless until 1969, when Dr. Oliver Sacks gave them the then-new drug L-DOPA, which had an astonishing, explosive, "awakening" effect. Dr. Sacks recounts the moving case histories of his patients, their lives, and the extraordinary transformations which went with their reintroduction to a changed world. |
Contents
| 1874 | |
| 1885 | |
PARKINSONS DISEASE AND PARKINSONISM | 1903 |
THE SLEEPINGSICKNESS Encephalitis Lethargica | 1913 |
THE AFTERMATH OF THE SLEEPINGSICKNESS 192767 | |
FRANCES D | |
MAGDA | |
ROBERT | |
MARGARET | |
AWAKENING | |
TRIBULATION | |
Epilogue 1982 | |
A HISTORY OF THE SLEEPINGSICKNESS | |
Glossary | |
About the Author | |
ROLANDO | |
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Common terms and phrases
activity akathisia akinesia amantadine attacks became become behaviour brain catatonia catatonic chorea clinical completely continued crisis depression developed disabled disorders documentary film DOPA dopamine dosage dose of L-DOPA dramatic drug dystonia encephalitic encephalitis lethargica epidemic Epidemic Encephalitis excitement experience extreme eyes feeling felt festination film of Awakenings forced hallucinations Hester hospital illness impulsions intense Leibniz Leonard Leonard L living look medicine Miss H months motionless motor Mount Carmel Mount Carmel Hospital move movement MPTP nature neurological never normal nurses observed occur oculogyric crises Oliver Sacks once palilalia Parkinson's disease Parkinsonian patients Parkinsonism pathological perhaps physiological possible post-encephalitic patients posture psychosis reactions to L-DOPA respiratory response rigidity Sacks seemed seen sense severe showed side-effects sleep sleeping-sickness sometimes sort speak speech started stopped strange substantia nigra sudden suddenly symptoms syndrome tendency therapeutic thought tics tremor violent walk weeks