The fact that I, a practicing neuroscientist, can openly admit to giving a shit about the human side of neuroscience without fearing “outing” myself as a soft thinker is in no small part due to artistry of Dr. Sacks’ blend of scientific rationality and human empathy. That’s an incredibly difficult line to walk when you’re faced with the existential reality that the very thing that makes us who we are can be changed in some way — for example by neurological trauma or injury — and can therefore change basic aspects of our perception and personality.
Dr. Sacks, through sheer force of compassion, reminded us, as a scientific field, that the very thing that makes neuroscience most frightening — its ability to expose our humanness as being tied to our physical self — is also why it’s so important for us to pursue it. The promise of neuroscientific advancement is the reduction of suffering, and in many ways Dr. Sacks was our empathic lighthouse in the scientific storm of advancement, guiding us toward that humanistic goal.