Mirror Touch: Notes from a Doctor Who Can Feel Your Pain

In this “rich, fascinating portrait of extraordinary sensory awareness” (Kirkus), acclaimed neurologist Joel Salinas, M.D., tells his amazing true story of living and practicing medicine with mirror-touch synesthesia, a rare neurological trait that allows him to literally feel the emotional and physical experiences of other people. From the corridors of Massachusetts General to his personal life, Salinas offers readers remarkable insights about his trait, its gifts, and its often unforgiving complications, and teaches us how our brain, in all its wonder, continues to offer limitless possibilities for compassion and human potential.

 Beautifully written and wholly original, Mirror Touch is a moving account of an exceptional mind that challenges our understanding of what it means to be human—everything it means to think, to feel, and to be.

How does a doctor who feels his patients’ pain navigate the fraught world of medicine, and what can his unique perspective teach us about our own capacity for connection?

• A Doctor’s Unique Perspective: Step into the corridors of Massachusetts General Hospital with a Harvard-trained neurologist who experiences his patients’ symptoms as if they were his own.
• The Science of Synesthesia: A fascinating exploration of a rare neurological trait that blurs the boundaries between the senses and challenges our understanding of the human brain.
• Radical Empathy in Medicine: Discover the profound gifts and unforgiving complications of a condition that offers limitless possibilities for human connection and compassion.
• Against the Odds: Follow Dr. Salinas’s moving true story as he learns to navigate his extraordinary ability, from personal relationships to the high-stakes world of medical emergencies.

Joel Salinas, MD, is the author of Mirror Touch: A Memoir of Synesthesia and the Secret Life of the Brain, former Harvard Medical School faculty, behavioral neurologist and Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Isaac Health.