Joe Salinas, jeune neurologue et chercheur à Harvard, est atteint d’un phénomène neurologique très rare : la Synesthésie Tactile-Miroir. Il partage les émotions et les sensations des gens qui l’entourent. Un article du Pacific Standard vient de raconter son histoire, et ses mémoires, qui ont suscité beaucoup d’intérêt lors de la dernière Foire de Francfort, seront publiées par HarperOne en 2017. Le manuscrit est prévu en juillet 2016.

Joe Salinas développe également une série pour la télévision basée sur ses expériences, en collaboration avec le créateur d’« Urgences » et sur le  modèle de la  série culte : « Dr House ».

Neurology as the key to achieving higher and more sustainable levels of empathy and consciousness

UNTITLED MEMOIR
by Joel Salinas, MD, MBA
HarperOne, April 2017

Dr. Joel Salinas, MD, MBA, is a clinical and research fellow in behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General. He also has mirror-touch synesthesia, a neurological trait that causes him to experience other people’s emotions and physical sensations. Joel often refers to his condition as « compulsory mindfulness » and a « heightened emphatic ability.” Joel is a remarkable man, with a remarkable story, and he shares his story with intelligence, patience, and grace.

The book will be a detailed memoir about his condition, intertwined with prescriptive lessons on empathy and mindfulness based on his personal experiences with mirror-touch synesthesia, as well as his ongoing neurological research. There is a distinct strain of scientific spiritualism in Joel’s work, a grounded wisdom about what it means to be human. Coupled with his neurological research, Joel’s experiences with mirror-touch synesthesia put him in a unique position to explain to a wide audience the mechanics of empathy and consciousness, literally how to be more present with ourselves and with others. Put another way, neurology as the key to achieving higher and more sustainable levels of empathy and consciousness.