The anatomy of the spirit
Mar. 13th, 2008 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brynndragonI've shared TED Talks before, but I just learned of this one and I really wanted to share it with you: Stroke of Insight, where a neuroanatomist describes her own stroke
It is true that we focus on the abilities concentrated in our left hemisphere, particularly we geeks (although there are plenty of geeks who don't, even we tend to pay lip service to this idea). There are those who act as if the right hemisphere is little more than the idiot savant servant of the left hemisphere, making a lot of noise but they put up with it because the occational "ah ha!" moments are worth the trouble. Some people don't even think it's worth the trouble and have all but completely silenced the right (and I wonder how much poorer those people are for ignoring half of their brain). But the right hemisphere is not smaller, does not have fewer connections, is not intellectually inferior compared to the left. In a word, it is not stupid.
I have struggled for a long time with these two hemispheres, these two modes. Somewhere along the way I fell in with people who operate under that idiot savant theory and reject anything that doesn't jibe with left-hemisphere thinking as meaningless noise. I allowed these people to shape my thought processes in the effort to be friends with them; I honestly can't say this was a mistake, because I do like them and value their friendship. But I do feel impoverished for having an entire half of my brain regularly ridiculed for holding on to the notions that Jill mentions in her talk, which I am sure at least some who read this will poo-poo so readily they might not bother to let her finish.
Which is a shame, because at the end she tells us that we have a choice in which half we will listen to at any given time. When she asked which I would chose, two voices in my mind responded, "Both". Because the left hemisphere is not unimportant; it is simply less important than it thinks it is and it is terribly persuasive (what with having most of our language abilities and all).
I need to work on emphasizing the right hemisphere more often. I know (through empirical experimentation) that I will be happier if I do, even if some of my friends think my right hemisphere, just like theirs, is stupid.
It is true that we focus on the abilities concentrated in our left hemisphere, particularly we geeks (although there are plenty of geeks who don't, even we tend to pay lip service to this idea). There are those who act as if the right hemisphere is little more than the idiot savant servant of the left hemisphere, making a lot of noise but they put up with it because the occational "ah ha!" moments are worth the trouble. Some people don't even think it's worth the trouble and have all but completely silenced the right (and I wonder how much poorer those people are for ignoring half of their brain). But the right hemisphere is not smaller, does not have fewer connections, is not intellectually inferior compared to the left. In a word, it is not stupid.
I have struggled for a long time with these two hemispheres, these two modes. Somewhere along the way I fell in with people who operate under that idiot savant theory and reject anything that doesn't jibe with left-hemisphere thinking as meaningless noise. I allowed these people to shape my thought processes in the effort to be friends with them; I honestly can't say this was a mistake, because I do like them and value their friendship. But I do feel impoverished for having an entire half of my brain regularly ridiculed for holding on to the notions that Jill mentions in her talk, which I am sure at least some who read this will poo-poo so readily they might not bother to let her finish.
Which is a shame, because at the end she tells us that we have a choice in which half we will listen to at any given time. When she asked which I would chose, two voices in my mind responded, "Both". Because the left hemisphere is not unimportant; it is simply less important than it thinks it is and it is terribly persuasive (what with having most of our language abilities and all).
I need to work on emphasizing the right hemisphere more often. I know (through empirical experimentation) that I will be happier if I do, even if some of my friends think my right hemisphere, just like theirs, is stupid.
