'An increasingly mechanistic, fragmented, decontextualised world, marked by unwarranted optimism mixed with paranoia and a feeling of emptiness has come about, reflecting, I believe the unopposed action of a dysfunctional left hemisphere.'
Iain McGilchrist
A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Does 'reflecting' mean 'caused by' here?
ReplyDeleteNige also did this one, btw.
It sounds like another accurate analysis of the England football team and all that surrounds it. That reference to 'a dysfunctional left hemisphere' gives it away; Capello has major problems down that side
ReplyDeleteClearly, 'dysfunctional left hemisphere' is another sly dig at America. And I thought you were above such things, Bryan...
ReplyDeleteSurely, Willard, if the globe is a head the left hemisphere is Eurasia/Eastasia? Perhaps it was a sly dig at confucianism.
ReplyDeleteIf you just delete the last word in the quote, it passes instantly from gibberish to profundity.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't write very well does he?
ReplyDelete'unwarranted optimism mixed with paranoia' not really Doc, more like unwarranted paranoia mixed with over optimism
ReplyDeleteWhere in Gods name are you finding all these people. I'm still pondering the first one on Minsky.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like one of those nightmarish ideas that, once had, cannot be got rid of. Everything you do and see only offers further confirmation of it. Soon, you are nodding wisely to yourself in the mirror. Shudder.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the full story only comes in his book. Does make me wonder, though, whether mental health might become the next great, multi-billion Western obession following the rise and falling of jogging, eco-everything, dieting, Top Gear, climate change and all the rest. Just a guess, but perhaps our ideas about mental health and nurturing the whole rather than parts of it tend to lag a generation or two behind the times and it's about the moment for a catch-up.
A feeling of emptiness is often best solved by pizza.
ReplyDeleteA fragmented world, however, is probably ultimately caused by Adam Smith's principle of specialisation.
It may just be my left hemisphere talking but does it not declare '18 comments' on 'Discuss 15' at the top level of the blog (unwarranted optimism?) then only show 17 of them when you click down into it? I freely acknowledge that my paranoia is governed by suspecting it's my response to Gordon this morning that's been chosen for the memory hole into another universe, leaving these strange traces. "The most incomprehensible thing about the censorship of Discuss 15 was that it was almost comprehensive, torturing the final contributor to within a Planck's constant of his sanity."
ReplyDeleteHe says in an interview that its like birds. Left brain - right eye - identifies seeds. Right brain - left eye - looks around for danger. Aparently we've all got a bit seedy.
ReplyDeleteThat is a general diagnosis for someone who just might be schizophrenic. That we could internalize this dysfunctional state and see it in the world and ourselves is iatrogenic. Schizophrenia has genetic and biological bases, so someone who is not disposed to schizophrenia will not get it, if the trigger comes into his or her life.
ReplyDeleteAnother side of the coin is that the left hemisphere has kicked in because of some focus, maybe some danger or threat but maybe even some work that needs to be done. Yet, our persistent need to stay on the left hemisphere could create dysfunction. In other words the world has not taken a much needed vacation or holiday maybe, and this has led to a mass psychosocial disorder. This would explain some increase in McGilchrist's patients that he has possibly detected, but maybe he has made observational studies that include more than his practice.
The question is, what in the world could cause such an increase in dysfunctional thinking? It may be that as a group we see the world as a more threatening place, what with the way the news of tragedies and atrocities can spread into our living rooms, kitchen tables, and now our computer screens. On the healthy side, it could be that more of us have taken causes up because of this, but the worry is getting to us as we've kept at it too long and intensely. It could also be that we have entered the age of computers, such that the world comes at us more linearly than ever before. Or even that God has been taken away through the prevalence of such one-sided thinking. It could be the breakdown of marriages and finances at the personal level that causes people to become over-vigilant, over left-brained.
Here I am putting the iatrogenesis onto the world, with me in it, when it might matter more whom you ask. Maybe those who wanted to be upward mobile, are becoming more dysfunctional because of the current situations, but people who are balanced remain unaffected as ever.
But the can of worms is opened with the question, and I have been away from my community social psychology studies too long to be hep. So I'll go for my daily walk after having written this, and see if my right brain can get me into such a creative mood, that I can further the discussion. By the way, if McGilchrist is correct, then whatever our problems are, by having dysfunctional left hemispheres, and insignificant right hemispheres, we would not have the mental capability to solve problems, certainly not the world's.
Before I go, there is another angle to this, which is represented by Iran. They are a threat with the government they have in place, and they don't mind making ideological enemies around their area or in the world. This causes their enemies to go into linear thinking, to focus on the issues, potentially to the point of threatening Iran back, even doubling the threat back. While all this dysfunctional left-brained maneuvering is going on, what also gushes out of Iran is its remarkable culture, which has become a great defense, because it causes those of us outside Iran to love the people inside Iran too much to go to war with them. The left-brained Iran has become a sick Iran, the right-brained one is beautiful and remarkable. Now, we can look in the mirror.
This might just be of interest
ReplyDeletehttp://www.brainwaving.com/2009/11/17/377/