Good-bye to a tumultuous year. A new war. The Jan 6 findings. Horrible performance of the stock market. Covid hanging around. Elections better than expected, but still upsetting the already fractious Congress. Starting to downsize in anticipation of moving to a “retirement community.” But not all with negative ramifications. Halfway to being 92, and in good physical and mental health. Still gifted with a loving spouse to keep me company and warm at night. Busy family, but still no great grandchildren on the horizon. My children haven’t tried to take away the car keys yet, so am happily getting about.… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Myth of the Self (3): The Right’s Kingdom—Wonder
Turning to the other side of the brain, the story is quite different. All the entries reflect the dominance of the right hemisphere and all are situation specific. The context of the setting is important, as any action is fitted to the immediate circumstances, unlike routines or habits, which are based on already established (in the left) patterns. The left hemisphere plays a part in most of these types of behaviors, offering up suggestions of responses it believes fit the situation, including options that may not. The right side can either accept or reject these inputs. The ability to say… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Myth of the Self (2): The Left’s World
Before you read this, you should read the prior post, if you haven’t already. What I say below requires that you have looked at the two tables and the previous discussion. I do believe that the categorization of the behaviors is consistent with the brand features of the divided-brain-model (very left-hemisphere comment). The idea of self (singular) would signify some unitary being, acting metaphorically like a machine, run by a program that can produce a variety of distinctive behaviors. Distinctive according to some criteria that an observer might use to describe an action, but arising from a common mechanism. One’s… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Myth of The Self (1)
I have just completed a course at the lifelong learning institution I belong to about three novels of displacement. Basically they are about how people respond after suddenly being transported from a world in which they have been acculturated to a completely different one. One was The Hunger Angel, by Herta Müller, a Nobel laureate in literature. It’s about an ethnic-German Romanian man who is removed to a Russian labor camp during WWII, and describes how he survives there during the 4-5 years he is interned. Another is Primo Levi’s, Survival in Auschwitz, an actual recounting of his experience. Other… Read More
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