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Anaesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and The Mystery of Consciousness

  • Jan 21, 2021
  • Kate Cole-Adams
  • 963 responses.

Anaesthesia The Gift of Oblivion and The Mystery of Consciousness A hundred and seventy years ago many people would have chosen to die rather than undergo the ordeal of surgery Today even major operations are routine Anaesthesia has made them possible But how much

  • Title: Anaesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and The Mystery of Consciousness
  • Author: Kate Cole-Adams
  • ISBN: 9781925498202
  • Page: 309
  • Format: Paperback

    • A hundred and seventy years ago many people would have chosen to die rather than undergo the ordeal of surgery Today, even major operations are routine Anaesthesia has made them possible.But how much do we really know about what happens when we go under Can we hear what s going on around us Is pain still pain if we are not awake to feel it, or don t remember it afterwaA hundred and seventy years ago many people would have chosen to die rather than undergo the ordeal of surgery Today, even major operations are routine Anaesthesia has made them possible.But how much do we really know about what happens when we go under Can we hear what s going on around us Is pain still pain if we are not awake to feel it, or don t remember it afterwards How does the unconscious mind deal with the body s experience of being cut open and ransacked And what happens to those rare patients who wake up under the knife Haunting, lyrical, sometimes shattering, Anaesthesia leavens science with personal experience and brings an intensely human curiosity to the unknowable realm beyond consciousness.

    • Free Read [Fantasy Book] Ð Anaesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and The Mystery of Consciousness - by Kate Cole-Adams ✓
      309 Kate Cole-Adams
    • thumbnail Title: Free Read [Fantasy Book] Ð Anaesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and The Mystery of Consciousness - by Kate Cole-Adams ✓
      Posted by:Kate Cole-Adams
      Published :2020-04-03T10:38:20+00:00

    About "Kate Cole-Adams"

    1. Kate Cole-Adams

      Kate Cole Adams is a writer and journalist She lives with her family in Melbourne Walking to the Moon is her first novel, and was shortlisted in the Victorian Premier s Literary Awards Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2006 It was published by Text Publishing in 2008.

    963 Comments

    1. 4.5★sAnaesthesia: “Most of us can barely pronounce it. Yet it has allowed the body’s defences to be breached in ways previously unimaginable except during warfare or other catastrophe. Through the use of powerful poisons, it has enabled entry into the secret cavities of the chest and the belly and the brain. It has freed surgeons to saw like carpenters through the bony fortress of the ribs. It has made it possible for a doctor to hold in her hand a steadily beating heart. It is a powerful [...]

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    2. Kate Cole-Adams’s book is ostensibly about anesthesia—the kind you typically undergo for surgical procedures. In fact, the first half of the book, give or take a bit, really is mostly about anesthesia, albeit with an almost obsessive focus on awareness/waking up during anesthesia. The second half of the book, starting with chapters entitled “Dreams” and “Ghosts”, however, is largely about the author’s preoccupation with her own psychological processes. More about that later.Eightee [...]

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    3. ‘Kate Cole-Adams’s Anaesthesia propelled me towards new ways of thinking about thinking itself: experience and consciousness and how we make in and make up this world.’Ashley Hay, Australian, Books of the Year 2017‘A work of splendid richness and depth, driven by a curiosity so intense that it hazards at times the extreme boundaries of the sayable.’Helen Garner‘Kate Cole-Adams has been fascinated with our funny non-being during surgery for a long time, and Anaesthesia feels like a [...]

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    4. An often fascinating look at consciousness and memory via a detailed look at the mysteries of anaesthesia. The scientific parts of the book are wonderful, but it got a bit bogged down when Cole-Adams explored her personal fascination with the topic - basically I think as soon as you're writing about your dreams you're walking a tightrope, and there were sections of this that didn't work for me.

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    5. Described as a mix of philosophy, science and questioning, this book delves into the mystery that is modern anaesthetic. Convention has it that you go in for surgery, an injection puts you to sleep, gas keeps you that way, you feel no pain, and then you wake up.Trouble is, no one knows exactly how these drugs work. You're not "asleep" that much is known. It's a disconnect between pain and your brain, awareness and unconsciousness, or else it's just that you're there all the way but you don't rem [...]

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    6. ‘The gift of oblivion and the mystery of consciousness.’What is anaesthesia and what impact does anaesthesia have on us? I’ve experienced fifteen or so general anaesthetics over the past fifty years, and I also worked (as a student nurse some forty years ago) in both the operating theatre and intensive care environments. A lot has changed over that period, but the intention of anaesthesia is surely broadly the same: to alter consciousness and reduce pain. Well-trained (and empathetic) anae [...]

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    7. Anaesthesia and its attendant mysteries are definitely fascinating, and the questions posed in the blurb seemed as promising as they were ultimately unanswerable – so I was expecting to really enjoy this book. Unfortunately, and without wanting to diminish the decade-plus of hard work and undeniable passion that have clearly gone into this project, I found that the book suffered from trying to be two things at once. lists it as a science/nonfiction/psychology title, but a more accurate catego [...]

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    8. You know how it's really dull to listen to people talk about their dreams? About half of this book is literal recounts of dreams (both the author's and other people's) and those parts are not particularly interesting nor do they seem relevant to the advertised central premise of anaesthesia. That's probably because parallel to the topic of anaesthesia, the author is really writing a book about her own hang ups. At one point, a psychiatrist who the author interviews makes a very pertinent point: [...]

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    9. Disclaimer: I know the author and I appear in this book.I've had several anaesthetics for medical procedures in my life. Most went well- one (which you can read about in the book) did not. But I'd never thought about what happens to "me", where "I" go while under the influence of the cocktail of drugs that is anaesthesia.This is a fascinating book that covers a range of topics around consciousness, unconsciousness and what it means to trust in medical professionals by handing over our bodies to [...]

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    10. I tried hard to like this book, but it was no page turner. There are many interesting historical bits that I enjoyed but the personal search left me cold. The premise of memories while under was interesting but laboured to extreme. Mind you, I was reading this in the company of a retired consultant anaesthetist, with whom I discussed aspects. My experiences with anaesthetic have been blissful. Thankfully. They have some pretty good tuff these days. If the book focused more on the history with a [...]

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    11. I received this book from .Did not finish. In my defense, I somehow made it halfway through the book before quitting.Anesthesia is a astoundingly boring book of debatable non-fiction written by a oblivious, hyper phobic woman who spent a decade writing about her biggest all consuming fear.If you, like me, are curious about this book because you'd like to read an engaging novel about anesthesiologists, anesthesia's history, anesthetic drugs and their different uses, proven cases of accidental awa [...]

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    12. I’ve never thought about whether, apart from death, it’s possible to switch off who we are. I’ve always assumed it must be because that’s what anaesthetists do. I read this like a wide-eyed child and sped through it in a few days. It freaked me out quite a bit and I pretty much bombarded everyone around me with weird and frightening stories about anaesthesia (or should that be amnesia?) Only I kept saying Anastasia like it was about the Romanovs – and then I would just say look, it’s [...]

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    13. I loved this exploration of consciousness and anaesthesia. I'm an anaesthtics nurse so there was a lot about the patient experiences reported in the book that was familiar and sometimes troubling. Kate Cole-Adams writes so well and it really is one long extended patient journey or memoir which I enjoyed a lot. I also studied philosophy in my BA before nursing and I felt like this book tied together so many different bits of my own experience, it's so much more than an exploration of anaesthesia. [...]

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    14. Liked it til about page 200 but then got tired of hearing so much about her. I felt that she brought too much of her own personality into the book. And I found myself having to look up things I thought she could use better words for, not technical terms, but things like "Simpson's sky" or "spell bag". But still quite fascinating in parts.

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    16. This book is intense. The author got interested enough in the subject to write a book after talking with a young woman who was, due to undetected anesthesia failure, awake, paralyzed, and able to fully feel the pain of her Caesarian. Quite the horror story, with lasting psychological damage. So one main question in the book is, how often does this happen? Another is, how often is a person under anesthesia awake, with or without pain, but doesn't remember it afterwards due to amnesiac drugs that [...]

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    17. I liked that Kate Cole-Adams mentioned people's personal experiences and also spoke at length to practitioners and researchers. She discusses important advances in anaesthesiology and different anaesthesiologist’s practices and preferences/views. In addition, she talks about the very interesting, but also disturbing, topic of patients waking during anaesthesia, some of these patients’ experiences and the repercussions. Kate Cole-Adams also discusses other altered states of consciousness, suc [...]

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    18. The author goes on a personal quest to piece together the history of anaesthesia and what we know of it now to make sense of the experiences she and others have had. This is more of a story, a journey, than an entirely scientific accounting, despite the numerous references to studies and interviews with professionals in a few fields. I adjusted my expectations as soon as I realized what kind of book this was going to be. I learned quite a bit.I read this book courtesy of NetGalley.

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    19. It was really profound. The author has profound ideas that cross link medical science and psychology, with metaphysics, philosophy and spirituality. But the book was odd in the sense that I kind of got lost in the brain fog (both metaphoric and literal) that the writer described. Parts were scientific but parts were mish mashed with her own experiences (and obsession with learning about anaesthesia), psychological musings, and thus it was part scientific, part memoir. I know that the book is the [...]

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    20. This was a very interesting topic. The book was well written and obviously soundly researched. The book read very quickly; as the author did a great job humanizing the issues and historical figures of anesthesia. My only criticism is that, in parts of the book, the author injected too much of her personal thoughts and it became a little too "Dear Diary" for my tastes.I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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    21. A bit meandering at times, but absolutely fascinating. I've always been terrified of general anesthesia (I've only ever had a brief IV sedation once), and just the thought of ever needing surgery makes me panic. This book didn't exactly help my fears, but now I feel so much more informed. It helped take some of the mystery out of it. Recommended!

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    22. I got up to page 230 of this work, but really can't be bothered going any further.Interesting when it was looking objectively at the science and scientific facts behind anaesthesia, but it worked way too hard to draw any evidence about hidden memories as a result of being under.And when Cole-Adams started to recount her dreams in great detail . well, let's just say she lost my attention.With way too much in the way of personal thoughts, feelings and fears inserted into it, this book is not objec [...]

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    23. Felt like a very slow book to me. Not sure if I should rate it because I didn't finish. Maybe it gets better, who knows, I gave up after 100 pages or so. Too much of personal stories and speculations I thought.

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    24. If you have ever gone through general anesthesia (the title spells it differently), you will know its like time travel, not like being asleep. There is no dreaming and you have a memory wipe. I have had it at least seven times and remember very little except for the time where they forgot to put in an IV until I was in the OR with all the masked people around me (not a pleasant memory). The book describe the mostly rare experiences of people where things went wrong and the efforts to try to dete [...]

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    25. In Anaesthesia, Cole-Adams delicately explores the myriad of experiences humans have when they undergo anaesthetic for surgery. The writing is a beautiful mix of summarised research, interviews and personal reflections that bring depth and humanity to the otherwise clinical scientific questions, opening the door for readers to bring their own responses to the conversation. The narrative revolves around one woman's complex experience during a caesarian birth - different dimensions of her experien [...]

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    26. Fascinating and at turns horrifying, this book had me hooked from beginning to end. It was clearly an enormous undertaking, weaving together numerous interviews with anesthesiologists, psychologists, researchers, patients, and more, along with Kate Cole-Adams' personal narrative about her interest in and experiences with anesthesia. I imagine some in the medical community would find Cole-Adams' take a little too emotional or spiritual, but I found it to be an enthralling take on consciousness an [...]

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    27. My first book of the year and what a book that was.I started out liking the book, excited even. But after about the first third, I was getting agitated and had basically enough of it. I struggled to finish it. It was probably because I went into the book expecting it to be more medical and technical. And what I got was a lot introspection from the author and too much new age speculation. There were too many tangents that veered too far from the point.I do appreciate the work and research the aut [...]

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    28. I don’t know how to review this book really but to say I found it a fascinating and thought provoking read. Not surprising really as when I heard author Kate Cole-Adams speak at the Byron Writers Festival i hung on her every word and felt such a resonance with her, I feel as though we could be friends and talk forever on these ideas of what is consciousness, all the unknowns surrounding anaesthesia and where we go and what we experience, dreams and so much more. This book explores these themes [...]

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    29. This is a difficult book to rate. Parts of it are solidly four stars - there is detailed, well-presented research into different elements of anaesthesia, with scientific information balanced by personal stories. However, this research is interspersed with odd digressions covering the author's dreams, her dabbling in hypnosis, her swimming pool musings and other reflections that seem self-indulgent and out of place, and which become more frequent as the book progresses. The result was that I didn [...]

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    30. I abandoned this book on about page 150. While it was compelling, to the point where I kept picking it up (and reading it) even after deciding, multiple times, to give up on it, the writing style was incredibly aggravating. Clearly, Kate Cole-Adams has yet to meet a digression she wasn't willing to take.I can get how this book has been lauded, but unfortunately, I just came to resent the time I was spending reading.

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