A Fascinating Case Study by Oliver Sacks Inspires a Short Animated Film, The Lost Mariner

In Feb­ru­ary, Oliv­er Sacks announced that he was suf­fer­ing from ter­mi­nal can­cer. And, by August, he was gone — but not before show­ing us (if you read his op-eds in the Times) how to die with dig­ni­ty and grace. All of this I was remind­ed of again today when I stum­bled upon a recent ani­ma­tion inspired by Sacks’ work. Called The Lost Mariner, the short film offers an ani­mat­ed inter­pre­ta­tion of a chap­ter  in Sacks’ 1985 book The Man Who Mis­took His Wife for a Hat. The chap­ter (also called “The Lost Mariner”) presents a curi­ous case study of a patient known as Jim­mie G. who, suf­fer­ing from Kor­sakof­f’s syn­drome, los­es the abil­i­ty to form new mem­o­ries. To see how Tess Mar­tin made this award-win­ning short, you can watch the mak­ing-of video below.

via @OliverSacks

Relat­ed Con­tent:

This is What Oliv­er Sacks Learned on LSD and Amphet­a­mines

Oliv­er Sacks’ Last Tweet Shows Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” Mov­ing­ly Flash­mobbed in Spain

Oliv­er Sacks Con­tem­plates Mor­tal­i­ty (and His Ter­mi­nal Can­cer Diag­no­sis) in a Thought­ful, Poignant Let­ter