A compassionate, literary account describes the author's work with institutionalized patients at Mount Carmel hospital and the dramatic effects of the drug LDOPA on twenty patients suffering from encephalitic Parkinsonism. Reprint. 15,000 first printing. Awakenings--which inspired the major motion picture--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. Acknowledgements xiii(4) Preface to the Original Edition xvii(4) Preface to the 1990 Edition xxi(4) Foreword to the 1990 Edition xxv Prologue 3(36) PARKINSON'S DISEASE AND PARKINSONISM 3(9) THE SLEEPING-SICKNESS (Encephalitis Lethargica) 12(8) THE AFTERMATH OF THE SLEEPING-SICKNESS (1927-67) 20(4) LIFE AT MOUNT CARMEL 24(4) THE COMING OF L-DOPA 28(11) Awakenings 39(184) FRANCES D. 39(28) MAGDA B. 67(7) ROSE R. 74(14) ROBERT O. 88(7) HESTER Y. 95(21) ROLANDO P. 116(12) MIRIAM H. 128(12) LUCY K. 140(8) MARGARET A. 148(13) MIRON V. 161(4) GERTIE C. 165(5) MARTHA N. 170(6) IDA T. 176(4) FRANK G. 180(3) MARIA G. 183(5) RACHEL I. 188(2) AARON E. 190(8) GEORGE W. 198(4) CECIL M. 202(1) LEONARD L. 203(20) Perspectives 223(54) PERSPECTIVES 223(12) AWAKENING 235(8) TRIBULATION 243(22) ACCOMMODATION 265(12) Epilogue (1982) 277(36) Postscript (1990) 313(6) Appendices 319(68) A HISTORY OF THE SLEEPING-SICKNESS 319(4) `MIRACLE' DRUGS: FREUD, WILLIAM JAMES, AND HAVELOCK ELLIS 323(4) THE ELECTRICAL BASIS OF AWAKENINGS 327(6) BEYOND L-DOPA 333(6) PARKINSONIAN SPACE AND TIME 339(12) CHAOS AND AWAKENINGS 351(16) AWAKENINGS ON STAGE AND SCREEN 367(20) Glossary 387(8) Bibliography 395(7) Index 402 Photo insert follows page 184