My Stroke of Insight - the book

I first heard about 'My Stroke of Insight' by Jill Boylte Taylor during an interview on NPR. Dr Taylor, a neuroanatomist (brain scientist), suffered a stroke at age 37.

I find the brain fascinating, perhaps because someone I am close to is affected by a brain tumor. I was interested to learn more about brain function / dysfunction from someone who understands the brain.

For example, at the time of the stroke, she was alone in her house. She knew she needed help, and the thought process and actions she took to get that help were fascinating. She needed to call a colleague, but didn't remember the number. She found the business card of a colleague, but she didn't understand numbers. She could only match the number 'patterns' on the business card to the number 'patterns' on the phone keys. Once she had dialed the phone, she couldn't speak to or understand her colleague, but understood his tone of voice enough to realize that he would call for help and assist her.

Fascinating! She later realized that she could have gone downstairs to her landlord, but at the time she was singularly focused on those business cards.

Because the stroke left the left hemisphere of her brain nonfunctioning, her right hemisphere became more dominant. And this is where the book veers into the self-help realm, in my opinion. During her time as a right-hemisphere dominant, she became more aware of the 'now', and felt bliss and nirvana, one-ness with the world around her. As she regained her left-brain functionalities, and slowly returned to her pre-stroke state, she mourned the loss of those feelings and continues to look for ways to regain them.

All in all, a bit bipolar for me - I'd take the scientific and her experiences, and cut the right-brain self-help bits.