My Stroke of Insight

I have pushed, prodded, and persuaded my mom to read a lot of books I like.  Once in a while, I feel compelled to do the same for her.

For half a year, she’s been telling me to read My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.  Since I don’t live at home, it’s pretty easy to ignore her.  However, I came back for Thanksgiving and while things were quiet and she didn’t have me help brine the turkey yet, somehow the book fell into my hands and it was implied I had no excuse to not read it now.  (It ended up being the fourth book I read that week.)

I went into it with some trepidation.  Dr. Taylor is a brain scientist and I have studiously avoided anything to do with that subject since college.  I took one psychology class and dropped out two months later.  Not because I wasn’t doing good—on the contrary, I was getting an A and it undoubtedly would not have hurt my GPA.  It was at least filling my GE credits to get my degree.

However, I was only doing well because I actually did the homework.  And if the tests weren’t open book, I would have failed.  After realizing I couldn’t remember anything since the class began and I had no desire to go back and review anything for comprehension, I walked out and never looked back.  I might need my brain to think, but I don’t need to think about how it thinks.

My mom thinks that’s stupid, and since I’m obviously wrong, I needed this book in my life.

My Stroke of Insight is Dr. Taylor’s story about her stroke at age 37 and her eight years of recovery that followed.  It’s a short book, but it’s valuable for three different reasons.

The one that mattered most to me were Chapters 2 and 3, which is a basic look at the brain.  I’ve seen the pictures and come across the terms dozens of times over my life, but this is the first time I can honestly say I understand the difference between the amygdala and the hippocampus, or what the limbic and cortical systems are for.

That in no way means that the rest is not worth your time.  They very much are.  The majority of the book is focused on her experience having a stroke and all that occurred as she tried to make herself well.  This portion of the story is not really for the stroke victims but for those who care for them.

One tip that stuck with me is that when you talk to stroke victims, you don’t need to shout.  They aren’t deaf; their hearing is just fine.  What can be problematic is comprehension.  What’s more effective is to talk s-l-o-w and be willing to repeat yourself as often as needed until they understand.

The last important point about this book is her unique (and rather spiritual) perspective on the roles and functions of the right and left hemispheres of our brains.  Her point is that these two sides of our brains tend to control us and how we feel.  Many seem to live so that we seemingly have no control over what we think or how we feel.  Dr. Taylor disagrees with this view, and shares her opinions based on her current understanding of how the brain and chemicals in our body work, and from her own personal experiences.

It’s certainly given members of my family hours of things to talk about and still never getting tired of it.