The history and future of neurological care Everything in Its Place Oliver Sacks Knopf, 2019. 282 pp. Mind Fixers Anne Harrington Norton, 2019. 384 pp

Oliver Sacks9s inexhaust­ible curiosity, his sharpness of wit, and his special ability to create, maintain, and write about meaningful friendships, often with his patients, lent his writing humane, uncommon compassion. All of these most endearing qualities are on full display in Everything in Its Place: First Loves and Last Tales, a posthumous collection of Sacks9s essays. But understanding why his ability to tell stories possessed such resonance requires another tale all together. Historian Anne Harrington offers a version of that story in her latest masterpiece, Mind Fixers: Psy­chiatry9s Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness. Her book, not about Sacks but focused on his historical context, complements his col­lection of essays by providing a readable, revisionist synthesis that shows that mind and brain medicine has not come as far as we imagine or wish.