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Description for Losing Touch
Hardcover. Ian Waterman lost all sense of movement below the neck over forty years ago. Unable to move, he felt disembodied and frightened. Slowly, he taught himself to dress, eat and walk by thinking about each movement with visual supervision. Here we see the science behind this rare condition but also Ian's personal journey through his unique response Num Pages: 192 pages. BIC Classification: HPM; MJN; PDZ; PSAN. Category: (G) General (US: Trade); (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly. Dimension: 163 x 240 x 17. Weight in Grams: 470.
What is like to live without touch or movement/position sense (proprioception)? The only way to understand the importance of these senses, so familiar we cannot imagine their absence, is to ask someone in that position. Ian Waterman lost them below the neck over forty years ago, though pain and temperature perception and his peripheral movement nerves were unaffected. Without proprioceptive feedback and touch the movement brain was disabled. Completely unable to move, he felt disembodied and frightened. Then, slowly, he taught himself to dress, eat and walk by thinking about each movement and with visual supervision. In Losing Touch, the narrative moves between biography and scientific research, theatre, documentary and zero gravity. He has been married three times, and built up successful careers in disability access audit, using his impairment to his advantage, and in rare turkey breeding and journalism. The neuroscience has led to data on movement without feedback, the pleasantness of touch, gesture, pain and body orientation in space. The account shows how the science was actually done but also reveals Ian's journey from passive subject to informed critic of science and scientists and that the science has given him both more understanding but also greater confidence personally. His unique response to such a rare condition has also led to a BBC documentary, theatrical portrayals and a weightless flight with NASA. As a young man he sought triumph over his impairment; now, nearly 65, he has more mature reflections on living with such an extraordinary loss, the limits it has imposed and the opportunities it has enabled. He gives his views on scientists and on others he has met including Oliver Sacks and Peter Brook. In an Afterword those from science, the arts and philosophy give an appreciation of his contribution. The book is the result of nearly 30 years close collaboration between author and subject.
Product Details
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2016
Publisher
Oxford University Press United Kingdom
Number of pages
192
Condition
New
Number of Pages
192
Place of Publication
Oxford, United Kingdom
ISBN
9780198778875
SKU
V9780198778875
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-2
About Jonathan Cole
A consultant in Clinical Neurophysiology at Poole Hospital and professor at the University of Bournemouth, Jonathan Cole trained at Brasenose College, Oxford and The Middlesex Hospital, London. His neuroscience research has focussed on sensory loss and motor control. Also interested in the experience of impairment, he studied with Oliver Sacks in the US in 1977 and has written several books; Pride and a Daily Marathon, about Ian's early experiences, About Face, Still Lives, on the experience of spinal cord injury and The Invisible Smile, on living without facial expression, and was an executive editor of The Paradoxical Brain, (Kapur, Ed).
Reviews for Losing Touch
[ Losing Touch: A Man Without His Body ] is also an honest and inspiring study of one man's personal resilience and motivation.
Michael Maltby, The Journal Of Critical Psychology, Counselling & Psychotherapy
Michael Maltby, The Journal Of Critical Psychology, Counselling & Psychotherapy