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A R Luria – The Mind of a Mnemonist

S. was one of a remarkable group of people, among them the composer Scriabin, who has retained in an especially vivid form a complex synaesthetic type of sensitivity.  In S's case every sound he heard immediately produced an experience of light and colour and … a sense of taste and touch as well.

S also experienced synaesthetic reactions when he listened to someone's voice.  'What a crumbly, yellow voice you have' he once told L S Vygotsky while conversing with him.  At a later date he elaborated on the subject of voices as follows

“You know there are people who seem to have many voices, whose voices seem to be entire compositions, a bouquet.  The late S M Eisenstein had just such a voice; listening to him, it was as though a flame with fibres protruding from it was advancing right towards me.  I got so interested in the voice; I couldn't follow what he was saying”