Mirror Touch: A Memoir of Synesthesia and the Secret Life of the Brain

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.

Challenging our understanding of what it means to be human, Joel Salinas, a Harvard-trained researcher and neurologist at Massachusetts General, shares his experiences with mirror-touch synesthesia, a rare and only recently identified neurological trait that causes him to feel the emotional and physical experiences of other people. Performing a spinal tap, he feels the needle slowly enter his lower back. If a disoriented patient flies into a confused rage, Salinas slips into a similarly agitated physical state, and when a patient dies, he experiences an involuntary ruin—his body starts to feel vacant and lifeless, like a limp balloon. 

Susceptible to the pain and discomfort of his patients, most of whom suffer from a host of disorders and extreme injuries, Salinas uses his trait to treat their symptoms, almost as if they were his own. At the same time, in his personal life, his mirror touch blurs the boundaries between himself and those close to him until he ends up inextricably entangled, no longer able to differentiate where he ends and someone else begins.  

Salinas refers to his condition as a kind of compulsory mindfulness, a heightened empathic ability that offers him invaluable clues about how to see and live the world through other people’s perspectives. This heightened sense of awareness is at the center of Mirror Touch. Through his experiences, both in his neurological practice and his personal life, Salinas offers readers insights about mirror-touch synesthesia and how the brain, in its endless wonder, can sometimes perform in a nearly superhuman, extrasensory way. In the process, Salinas reveals the full power and potential of his trait, as well as its thorny complications and often debilitating limitations. 

Beautifully written with intelligence and compassion and anchored by the latest developments in neurology, psychology, and psychiatry, Mirror Touch is an enthralling and wholly original investigation into the unexplored corners of the brain, where the foundation of human experience and relationships take root—everything it means to think, to feel, and to be.

“Joel Salinas takes his reader into the harrowing, tender, and sometimes brutal realities of living with mirror-touch synesthesia. But the book’s reach is wider and deeper than the condition. It is nothing less than a reflection on human empathy itself, a book for everyone.” - Siri Hustvedt, author of What I Loved

“Vicarious and enthralling…. A rich, fascinating portrait of extraordinary sensory awareness.” - Kirkus Reviews

“He writes with depth and candor and immediacy, as well as a great deal of compassion in the Oliver Sacks tradition. I laughed, I cried… I found myself nodding in recognition. I predict this book will be a classic not only in the synesthesia literature, but in all of neuroscience.” - Psychology Today

“He writes with depth and candor and immediacy, as well as a great deal of compassion in the Oliver Sacks tradition. … I laughed, I cried, and I found myself nodding in recognition of the truth of his synesthetic experiences more than once. I predict this book will be a classic not only in the synesthesia literature, but in all of neuroscience.” - Psychology Today

“A brilliant book that elegantly combines personal narrative with insights into the underlying science.”  - V.S. Ramachandran, author of The Tell-Tale Brain and Phantoms in the Brain