Oliver Sacks, MD, professor of neurology and psychiatry, out gay man, and motorcyclist, shattered the canons of the scientific community and embraced popular culture, by becoming one of the most acknowledged and influent authors of the past decades, having The New York Times referred to him as the “laureate poet of medicine”. His anthologies of neurological cases, such as “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” (1985) or “An Anthropologist on Mars” (1995) reach an even broader audience, for the author who had already gained public recognition with his 1973 book “Awakenings”, on his clinical experience with survivors of the encephalitic lethargica of the beginning of the 20th century.

Following the screening of the documentary about him, Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, and to talk to us about his legacy, both in neurological studies, and on the public perception of this medical field, we invited neurologists Pedro Cabral and Bruno Maia for a debate moderated by Maria José Campos, MD.