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Oliver Sacks
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Seeing Voices Paperback – November 28, 2000

by Oliver Sacks (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 358 ratings
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The renowned neurologist and bestselling author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat takes us on a journey into the world of deaf culture, and the underpinnings of the remarkable visual language of the congenitally deaf.

"This book will shake your preconceptions about the deaf, about language and about thought.... One of the finest and most thoughtful writers of our time." —Los Angeles Times Book Review

Like The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, this is a fascinating voyage into a strange and wonderful land, a provocative meditation on communication, biology, adaptation, and culture.  In Seeing Voices, Oliver Sacks turns his attention to the subject of deafness, and the result is a deeply felt portrait of a minority struggling for recognition and respect—a minority with its own rich, sometimes astonishing, culture and unique visual language, an extraordinary mode of communication that tells us much about the basis of language in hearing people as well.

Seeing Voices is, as Studs Terkel has written, "an exquisite, as well as revelatory, work."
Previous page
  1. Print length
    240 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Vintage
  4. Publication date
    November 28, 2000
  5. Dimensions
    5.13 x 0.65 x 7.89 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0375704078
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0375704079
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book will shake your preconceptions about the deaf, about language and about thought. Sacks [is] one of the finest and most thoughtful writers of our time." —Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Fascinating and richly rewarding. Sacks is a profoundly wise observer." —The Plain Dealer

"One cannot read more than a few pages of Sacks without seeing something in a new way. His breadth of understanding and expression seems limitless." —Kansas City Star

"A remarkable book, penetrating, subtle, persuasive. [It] will likely become a classic." —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

From the Inside Flap

"This book will shake your preconceptions about the deaf, about language and about thought--. Sacks [is] one of the finest and most thoughtful writers of our time."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

Like The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, this is a fascinating voyage into a strange and wonderful land, a provocative meditation on communication, biology, adaptation, and culture.  In Seeing Voices, Oliver Sacks turns his attention to the subject of deafness, and the result is a deeply felt portrait of a minority struggling for recognition and respect--a minority with its own rich, sometimes astonishing, culture and unique visual language, an extraordinary mode of communication that tells us much about the basis of language in hearing people as well. Seeing Voices is, as Studs Terkel has written, "an exquisite, as well as revelatory, work."

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (November 28, 2000)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0375704078
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0375704079
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.13 x 0.65 x 7.89 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 358 ratings

About the author

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Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks

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Oliver Sacks was born in 1933 in London and was educated at Queen's College, Oxford. He completed his medical training at San Francisco's Mount Zion Hospital and at UCLA before moving to New York, where he soon encountered the patients whom he would write about in his book Awakenings.

Dr Sacks spent almost fifty years working as a neurologist and wrote many books, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia, and Hallucinations, about the strange neurological predicaments and conditions of his patients. The New York Times referred to him as 'the poet laureate of medicine', and over the years he received many awards, including honours from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Royal College of Physicians. In 2008, he was appointed Commander of the British Empire. His memoir, On the Move, was published shortly before his death in August 2015.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
358 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

T. L. Cooper
5.0 out of 5 stars Seeing Voices Screams for Us to Hear the Voiceless...
Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2015
Verified Purchase
My American Sign Language teacher recommended the class read Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks, so I decided to read it during our break between terms. I quickly found myself immersed in a world within the world in which we live. Sacks, a hearing man, explores the Deaf world and Deaf Culture in a way that brings clarity to something that feels impossible to understand. Sacks provides a glimpse into the history of deaf people and their interactions with the world. His observations are compassionate but never pitying. At times I found myself wincing at the cruelty people are capable of inflicting on one another as I read his descriptions of the attitudes toward deaf people throughout history. In his discussion on communication among the Deaf and between Deaf and hearing people, I felt a sense of the urgency all living beings feel to communicate. His examination of deaf people's attempts to communicate and how often hearing people force their communication on other people as if its the only way to communicate left me heartsick but more aware of my own tendencies. I felt incredibly aware of how often I take hearing for granted and how often it serves me without me giving it a second thought. Sacks also pushed me to think about how "normal" doesn't mean the same thing to everyone, something I know but sometimes forget. Seeing Voices is about more than Deaf Culture and deaf people, it's a book about how society functions and normalizes and fears and creates and destroys and changes. Seeing Voices screams for us to open our world and see beyond the limitations we place on ourselves and others based on misconception and lack of communication...
20 people found this helpful
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Evan Robertson
5.0 out of 5 stars Although I agree with some other reviewers that the footnotes are tedious to read (my edition has them at the back ...
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2016
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I'm seeing this book constantly compared to Sacks' "Hat" even though this work is in a completely different style. First of all, this is only on people who are deaf and their culture, while the title of Hat has "and other Clinical Tales" at the end. This book is in a similar style to Musicophilia and Awakenings, it takes on one subject and explores it in depth. So, while you don't get the varied clinical stories, you get a deep view on people who are deaf.
Although I agree with some other reviewers that the footnotes are tedious to read (my edition has them at the back of the book so there was a lot of flipping), it is, as always, an easily readable and informative text on the subject. I love how Sacks, through this and all his books, focuses on how people adapt to their "disabilities" even though they are seen as less than normal in our culture at large and makes you realize that they are not disabled, but differently abled, capable of everything "normal" people are.
17 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Journey to a parallel world
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2015
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Great insight to deaf world and the idea that sign was a stand alone language
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Rogananda
5.0 out of 5 stars Seeing what makes us human.
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2013
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Looking at language without speech is mind blowing. Without language we do not share in human culture. We do not "think" without language. I truly believe that everyone should find the experiences of the deaf important and interesting on an emotional and intellectual level. This book was a great start for me.
While this book is dated, Oliver Sacks shares very valuable experiences by deaf people. He reviews some of the personal struggles of the deaf, their historic treatment by hearing people, some history of sign language, and the development of Deaf culture. It is helpful that Oliver Sacks starts initially from his own ignorance. He walks us through well researched insights, and he brilliantly lights our understanding of human thinking that comes from language development.
9 people found this helpful
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Garrett Mccutcheon
5.0 out of 5 stars A door to the world of the Deaf
Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2013
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As a hearing person, I must admit that I never gave much thought at all to the Deaf, let alone Deaf culture. Sacks' Seeing Voices is a real eye opener in this regard. Sacks admits that he came at the problem of deafness from a medical/neurological perspective, and was quickly and radically changed by what he learned about the Deaf. Sacks passion is evident as he takes the reader through the history of Deaf culture, the struggles and successes of the Deaf. I now have a new appreciation of the Deaf, and their place in society, and their unique difficulties. This has opened a new channel in my mind, one which I intend to explore more fully in the future.
4 people found this helpful
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Charlotte Van Hale
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2021
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My favorite Oliver Sacks book of all time, left me with new understanding and empathy and curiosity about the deaf and hard of hearing. Strongly recommend if you like nonfiction as I do.
2 people found this helpful
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Peter Castaldi
5.0 out of 5 stars The Importance of Language
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2000
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Seeing Voices gives a clear answer to the question, "Which comes first? Language or thought." The answer, "Language." As Sacks retells stories of the profoundly deaf deprived of "language" into early adulthood, the pattern emerges: Without language there is no abstraction, no ability to achieve love or communication, and all life becomes an inarticulate groaning to have basic needs met immediately. There is no sense of time - life becomes an eternal present. The discovery of language leads to intense sadness as one realizes the lonely prison they have been in. In a long life of reading, this is the first book I immediately re-read on completing it the first time.
51 people found this helpful
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A neighbor
5.0 out of 5 stars ASL 101
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2011
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We recently took a four month course in ASL. It is one thing to learn a new way to communicate, it is another to have it become a part of you. This book,Hearing Voices, provided us with the first steps in understanding deafness with life stories, scientific studies, and observations . Since we are not deaf, this book also provided us with the first steps in communicating with the deaf using ASL...understanding and appreciation for a culture that SEES our world in a richly different way.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Marie-Helene LECHENE
2.0 out of 5 stars Deception
Reviewed in France on June 10, 2020
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J'ai acheté un livre qui me tenait à coeur et ai accepté de le payer plus cher parce qu'il était décrit comme "en bon état". Il est arrivé tartiné de Stabilo rose. Il ne s'agit pas d'une petite fiction scolaire avec des annotations faites au crayon par un étudiant mais de paragraphes entiers surlignés.
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Rosa D. V.
5.0 out of 5 stars Apasionante tema
Reviewed in Spain on July 18, 2017
Verified Purchase
Magnífica incursión en el mundo de los sordos y la lengua de signos. Apasionante tema, bien explicado, con pasión y admiración, sin paternalismo. Una gran lectura, muy recomendable.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Sacks is the par excellence Insightfull.
Reviewed in Australia on May 27, 2022
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In all of Dr Sacks clinical work, and in his books, you witness his great depth of wisdom and compassion. This book provides us with even morec insight into the often hidden parts of humanity.
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Andrea
5.0 out of 5 stars The book is quite heavy in part and the reader needs to jump backwards and forwards between the narrative and extensive footnote
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 2, 2016
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Few people really understand Deaf culture and the Deaf Community. They think they do but unless you identify yourself as Deaf (with a capital 'D'), I don't believe you really do. I was therefore intrigued to read Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks, mainly because he was hearing and until he started researching for this book, had little understanding of the topic matter. However Mr Sacks, in my opinion, has managed just that. The book is quite heavy in part and the reader needs to jump backwards and forwards between the narrative and extensive footnotes that appear at the bottom of a good many pages, but in doing so, nothing escapes the genius of what he writes. I should add that I myself are hearing and simply move at the edge of the Deaf Community as a CSW. This was the first book that I read by Oliver Sacks and I have since become a massive fan of his work.
3 people found this helpful
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RealReviewer
5.0 out of 5 stars A Treat for Language Enthusiasts
Reviewed in Germany on December 21, 2012
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Oliver Sack's awe for the signed word is contagious, and, if I weren't already learning sign language, the book would have convinced me to start. I found it gratifying to see Dr Sacks had already turned his keen acumen to sign and that more than 20 years ago! As always, his knack for asking all the right questions amazes me, and his attempts both to find answers and to confront the unanswerable are humbling and inspiring. He also has an enormous talent for making his reader want to delve further into whatever subject he's treating, and many of Seeing Voice's references are now on my next reading list!
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