The Soul in the Brain: The Cerebral Basis of Language, Art, and Belief Illustrated Edition, Kindle Edition
by Michael R. Trimble (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.8 out of 5 stars 11
In this provocative study, Michael R. Trimble, M.D., tackles the interrelationship between brain function, language, art—especially music and poetry—and religion. By examining the breakdown of language in several neuropsychiatric disorders, he identifies brain circuits that are involved with metaphor, poetry, music, and religious experiences. Drawing on this body of evidence, Trimble argues that religious experiences and beliefs are explicable biologically and relate to brain function, especially of the nondominant hemisphere.
Inspired by the writings and reflections of his patients—many of whom have epilepsy, psychosis, or affective disorders—Trimble asks how the human species, so enamored of its own logic and critical facilities, has held from the dawn of civilization strong religious beliefs and a reverence for the arts. He explores topics such as the phenomena of hypergraphia and hyper-religiosity, how religious experiences and poetic expression are neurologically linked with our capacity to respond to music, and how neuropsychiatric disorders influence behaviors related to artistic expression and religiosity by disturbing brain function.
With the sensitivity of a dedicated doctor and the curiosity of an accomplished scholar, Trimble offers an insightful analysis of how the study of people with paradigmatical neuropsychiatric conditions can be the cornerstone to unraveling some of the mysteries of the cerebral representations of our highest cultural experiences.
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""A final chapter integrates the book's core themes, using poetic examples as illustrations'resulting in an evocative meditation on art and biology.""
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In this provocative study, Michael R. Trimble, M.D., tackles the interrelationships between brain function, language, art--especially music and poetry--and religion. By examining the breakdown of language in several neuropsychiatric disorders, he identifies brain circuits that are involved with metaphor, poetry, music, and religious experiences. Drawing on this body of evidence, Trimble argues that religious experiences and beliefs have biological foundations which relate to brain function, especially of the nondominant hemisphere. It is through an understanding of these associations that he explores the basis of human creativity.
This book exists . . . to explain matters of the heart using our knowledge of the mind . . . A host of professional students, clinicians, educators, and other well-read individuals will find this worthy of a close and careful read.--JAMA
A highly thought-provoking excursion through neuroscience, philosophy, and culture.--Scientific American Mind
This scholarly, yet provocative, book from an insightful, observant neurologist . . . is rich with thought-provoking ideas.--British Journal of Psychiatry
Trimble's book has elegantly accomplished its ambitious scope in highlighting the cerebral mechanisms that contribute to the most vital aspects of human experience, thus building solid intellectual bridges between different--and often noncommunicating--research fields.--Cognitive Neuropsychiatry
It is hard to imagine reading this book carefully without being enriched by the experience.--Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry
An evocative meditation on art and biology.--Choice
This text considers crucial and significant questions about the relationship between creativity, belief, and the brain. One does not need to agree with the arguments and conclusions to find much of value in this book. I suspect that it will receive a warm critical reception within scientific and medical contexts, and I have no doubt that many receptive readers will also be found amongst an informed general audience.--Journal of Religious History--Paul McHugh, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine "Choice"
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Product details
ASIN : B07DFNCX4G
Publisher : Johns Hopkins University Press; Illustrated edition (17 April 2007)
Language : English
File size : 1852 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
Print length : 409 pagesBest Sellers Rank: 1,051,969 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)194 in Religious Studies - Psychology
231 in Physiological Aspects in Psychology (Kindle Store)
246 in Neuroscience TextbooksCustomer Reviews:
4.8 out of 5 stars 11
Michael R. Trimble
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Jay Pullan
5.0 out of 5 stars InsightfulReviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2015
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Remarkable, insightful reading. I felt compelled to order this after reading an excerpt from the book by the author which touched on questions I had been asking for almost my entire lifetime. Questions: the longer term impact of epilepsy on the brain & resulting effects, experiences, awareness and personality traits . The writing/research goes much deeper than a neuroscience/psychological analysis as the title of the book suggests, and also covers other areas of impact and effect resulting from an array of neurological disorders. I would have wished to have known further the relation between the long term use of prescribed medication for conditions as epilepsy and its effects on health/mental health and even where the initial condition had been controlled and dissipated such as with childhood epilepsy. All in all this valuable work I feel is well able to resolve my questions and validate personal experiences otherwise seemingly neglected for the patient over practical application in this field.
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Dr. Gwyneth Findlow
5.0 out of 5 stars Bad News for the New AtheistsReviewed in the United States on 3 November 2009
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Back in the old days before C.T's, P.E.T's and M.R.I's, doctors looked for clusters and patterns in their patients' symptoms and signs which gave them clues about the possible location and nature of the pathology. If they were lucky enough their names were given to the syndromes thus described. Dr Trimble looked at some patterns in sick people which gave him clues about the work done by the `non-dominant' side of the brain: [specifically, temporal lobe epilepsy, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and their correlation with particular disciplines of the creative arts.] I looked at the patterns of behaviour in sick and non-sick counselling patients to find the different sorts of connections between physical illness and emotional/spiritual malaise. Our books complement one another. His area of expertise is called neuropsychiatry because it brings together the behaviour [arising out of] normal vs sick brains and the anatomical circuits from whence the behaviour arises - something like an electronic engineer looking for a break-down in continuity of complex interlocking circuitry. Since I don't have access to fancy imaging techniques but my two ears have been listening to the varied expressions of human distress for fifty years, my area of expertise [also based in the neuro-anatomy outlined by Dr Trimble and in complete agreement with it] links clinical observations of emotional behaviour [psychology and psychiatry] with the understandings [wisdom] of old-fashioned Christian theology, to try and make sense out of some of humanity's age-old problems.
Dr Trimble in his epilogue bewails the neglect of interest and research in neuro - psychiatry; there is a similar huge parallel neglect of sciences of the mind [psychology and psychiatry] by church academics, probably because they have been pushed out by scientists. Note this slightly ambivalent [?poetic] quote of one back-cover reviewer "......written from the cold hard world of a neuroscientist or the more abstract but `less brain-informed pulpit' of a spiritual leader." What this probably completely inoffensive remark lacks in pungency can easily be supplied by any of our three New Atheists - who don't seem to have noticed this particular book - yet. In the days before clever doctors men of the cloth used to be the most learned persons in their communities, often sponsoring young impoverished individuals who otherwise would never have been able to access the benefits of university education. Twenty years ago a graduating accountant confidentially told me `arts degrees are written on toilet paper' which shows how classics and humanities have dived on the academic share market - compared with the biological sciences which have escalated.
Crick's comment at the start of the book shows the difference between scientism and the preferred attitude of the majority of ordinary folk. As a result of knowledge about DNA and neuroanatomy, Crick feels able to say
"you, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules."
The language he uses here is very telling - definitely not poetic! The `in fact' says "there's the end to any other point of view" and the `no more than' is very minimising to the `you' he is addressing. Then Trimble [5th line, first paragraph chapter 2] continues "the only thing astonishing about this astonishing hypothesis is why it should be, at the turn of the second millennium, astonishing."
Well, I can tell him why. Because it isn't true. And people know it isn't true. And people refuse to be spoken to, in such a way. As a doctor I accept all the biology and neuroanatomy with gratitude for that knowledge, but I do not share the same conclusions as Crick and Trimble.
There are a few concrete instances showing lack of discernment By Dr Trimble. He confuses `evolution' and cultural changes many times. Homo sapiens 40,000yrs ago had a brain exactly like our own. The way that the protagonists of Greek mythology thought about themselves/the Gods/the world is nothing to do with changes in awareness/consciousness coming about during evolution of the brain. Those changes were happening much earlier [2-6million] in the scavengers/hunter-gatherers that were the pre-cursors of the well-known hominids Habilis and Erectus.
I thought his assessment of what is `creative' or `great achievement' in a person was a bit heavy, tending to classify folk according to his adopted pattern [thank goodness he doesn't have epilepsy, he wouldn't even want to get up in the morning!] Apparently van Gogh couldn't be a great creative artist because he has epilepsy and/or schizophrenia [rather than the more highly favoured bipolar disorder.] Hypomanic folk may appear amusing to an observer, but we only need to ask Spike Milligan's family whether it is a curse or a blessing. [Hypo-mania is a more vibrant out-ward expression of energy, whereas schizophrenia is a more private introverted struggle which is more difficult for a carer to share verbally.]
He makes two rather dangerous mistakes when he classifies St Paul in his gastaut-geschwind syndrome and labels him as father of the Catholic Church. [Ouch!!] [That was Paul smarting under his new title.] The content of Paul's writing clearly takes him right out and beyond anything remotely pathological. It wasn't just enthusiastic rubbish; aimed at specific individuals and groups, loaded with meaning, not at all repetitive or moralistic and full of love - he wasn't a person suffering angst [like Nietzche.] The whole tenor was to escape the legalism and moralism of religious practice, and commit to a person. Institutions were OUT, house-groups were IN. [Paul was obsessional and moralistic before he met Christ when he was rounding up the rebels who were giving Judaism a bad name.]
Secondly, doesn't Dr Trimble know that Roman Catholics have always been allergic to the Bible - not supposed to read it for themselves in case they get the wrong end of the stick. It's the Protestants who read their bibles in an enquiring mode. Since Paul's literary output was much smaller than Dr Trimble's, perhaps it's Dr Trimble who has the G-G syndrome. [Only teasing - but if I had a fraction of Paul's intellect and insight, and the energy to do what he did, I would consider myself to be highly creative.]
Another lack of discernment is to confuse `conversion' and `dramatic episode.' The dramatic episode with voices and visions is a passive experience which surprises the individual. His conversion is a willed decision to commit to God - to change the direction of his life - which may very well be influenced by the experience he just had/ remembered/ thought about, but they are two separate different activities. In his research Dr Trimble calls the dramatic episode a `conversion.' This is wrong.
About the table [page 142-144] in general: assuming that Paul didn't found Christianity, Jesus did, and the facts do not match the criteria for G-G syndrome, out of the fifteen individuals there were just three who founded new religions i.e.Mormons, Islam and Church of New Jerusalem. Shakers were one variety of Christianity. Out of fifteen, twelve stuck with their original mainstream faith, only three of them diverged into new territory. And Mohammed would have been glad to join the Jews if they would have had him - but they rejected him. So, he was persistant but that doesn't make him ill. Which leaves only two out of the fifteen who were obviously suspect [mental-health-wise.]
On page 145 Trimble describes `hypergraphia'.
1.Long detailed descriptions of their lives. [This isn't Paul.]
2.Constructing religious texts. [Paul looked at original Jewish ones - and not very often actually.]
3.Poetry. [This isn't Paul.]
4.Attention to detail. [Yes - he had obsessive personality traits, but he wasn't ill.]
5.Euphoria associated with his writing. [No evidence of this. He wrote to support and encourage the people he hadn't seen for a while. Sometimes he was disappointed in the news he had got, about the groups left behind.]
Again, page 149, patients 2 & 3 don't seem to me to be peculiar at all. No hallucinations, nothing bizarre or dramatic. [That's not to say that they shouldn't be included for other reasons - I don't have the info. to judge.]
Instances of religious hallucinations, page 141 . I would say from experience it would be much higher than 3% amongst schizophrenics, as well as very common in mania and 25% in post-ictal psychosis.
On page 190 there are two quotes which I like, which could be taken as metaphors for the "mutual voluntary submission" paradigm which I use to describe the nature of the Holy Spirit. These are found in the top large paragraph, and bottom large paragraph, respectively.
1. "co-operation between limbic and cortical"
2. "harmonised with and subordinated to"
One thing I don't like is the great attention given to Nietzche who was a great inspiration to Hitler ["ubermenschen"], and the other thing I worry about is what Trimble does NOT say - leaving it open once more for the 3 Atheists to extrapolate errors and omissions to suit themselves.
For example, the Nietzche quotation page 201 is a worry: "the meaning [does N. mean `aim'?] of the religious cult is to determine and constrain nature for the benefit of mankind, that is to say to impress upon it a regularity and rule of law which it does not at first possess." Quite apart from the likelihood that 70% of the population would see the above quote in a positive light anyway - I would say that the right brain [and more spontaneous informal `religious' assembly] is trying to do the opposite - to find freedom from the conflict engendered by being an individual but at the same time part of a social group who are dependant on one another for physical and emotional survival. The Nietzche quote reminds me of the Dr Spock message to parents [which he later recanted] ; "Don't interfere with nature [its delicate!] don't say no to a child, it will damage him."
What exactly IS nature, in this context? Dr Trimble singles out art, music and dance, poetry and play [& its apotheosis, Greek tragedy.] These are all very good things to have, but he devotes only 7 lines [p211] out of the whole book to the bad side of human nature. We are hard-wired to run on instincts and emotions - affect permeates everything we do. We do not run on logic and reason, and when under stress [in conflict] the decisions we make instinctively are directed towards our own protection, survival and ultimate dominance. From a long-term social point of view, many of our decisions [even deliberate ones] are self-defeating in the long run. WE HAVE TO LEARN IT to get it right more often. This is the `parenting' we hear so much about. Perhaps Dr Trimble's `polymathic erudition' slips a bit when we come to early childhood development.
Good nurturing behaviours are not instinctive, they have to be taught by the elders in the family - the folk with experience. So now that we have global travel and nuclear [if not single parent] families, there is no workshop in which to glean these important skills. What then is unconstrained [default] nature? in the so-called civilised world. Power struggles; intra-personal, within families, institutional, physical, political, sexual, racial, religious, social, biological, environmental. This message does not come out of Dr Trimble's excellent book. If you blinked on page 211, you would have missed it entirely. So Dr Trimble is informative regarding anatomy and circuits, but a bit shy regarding the conclusions we may draw from knowledge so gained.
Important Messages On Offer in 2009
3 New Atheists:
Reason & Science; good ^[=L brain] Faith/Religion; EVIL v[=R brain]
Spock et al:
Spontaneous dev'pment; ^[=R brain] Parental interv'ion; v[full stop]
Trimble:
Art,Drama,Poetry,Music;^[=R brain] Religion out-of-date; v[=R brain]
Nietzche/Trimble
Nature;^[=R brain] Monotheism[Right brain]constrains Nature: There-fore Monotheism is bad/unnatural v [although Right brain.]
Perhaps Nietzche meant that religious dogma/ CONTROL were the bug-bears? Regulated organised behaviour comes from Left brain v, but the will to control others comes out of fear and insecurity, and this is limbic - so we're back to R brain - ? ^ or v ? * * * ** * * ** * * ** * * *
Furthermore: did Moses have Gastaut-Geschwind syndrome? [Would he have written even more commandments if he had had a white-board and some felt-tip pens.]
And incidentally, if you have to be psychotic, choose bipolar disease, not epilepsy or schizophrenia.
Is everyone suitably confused? I thought so!
Forgive me! Back to the debate.
P49 The Limbic System as Seat of the Soul [midparagraph]
"IT HAS BEEN CONVINCINGLY SHOWN THAT EMOTIONAL VALENCE CONTAMINATES ALL HUMAN INTERACTIONS AND BELIEFS, AND IT IS OBVIOUS THAT DISTURBED EMOTIONS ARE REFLECTED IN ALL PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS. This argues for the DOMINANCE of allocortical and limbic lobe structures OVER THE NEOCORTEX in regulating behaviours, a continual triumph of the EMOTIONAL over the RATIONAL."
"The well-defined structures in the brain that elaborate emotion are not a confined[limbic]system but are all-pervasive in influencing not only motion but also cognition."
So it seems to me that it would be important for us to act in unison - be mutually accountable - and get it right! [As Tim used to say on `the Goodies']
Page 50 [second paragraph]
"The biasing of judgment and thus personal knowledge by emotion can be observed on a day-to-day basis in human affairs." [Then 4 lines re basis in neuroanatomy] "Emotion is no longer seen as a COUNTERPART to reason in human cognition but rather as a COLLABORATOR, and indeed CONSTRUCTOR, of our reasons and thinking."
In other words, the spirit leads our thinking and actions - so we need to get it right! Self-awareness, self-control, a right spirit and mutual accountability would all seem to be desirable traits for the individual to pursue and cultivate, if we are to achieve the social harmony we all long to see. Not a foray into more and more individualism independence and spontaneity - we are not short of these commodities in our liberal democracy.
So, yes! Read this book if you have an open mind. It will be a shock to the unsuspecting and bad news for the three Atheists. Not what they were hoping for, but they can hardly argue with anatomy.
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Dr. Richard G. Petty
5.0 out of 5 stars A Scholarly and Provocative TheoryReviewed in the United States on 10 September 2009
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Since the 1960s the theory that each hemisphere of the brain has different functions has entered the mainstream. We constantly hear people being described as being "Left-brained" or we are told to use our "Right brain" "instead of" using reasoning and logic. Yet most of the time the two hemispheres act in harmony, and the notion of separate functions appears to apply more to men than women. For example in the typical male brain language is primarily represented in the dominant hemisphere, while women tend to use regions of both sides of the brain when speaking. There do remain some striking differences between the actions of the two sides of the brain, and in this splendid book Michael Trimble uses these to create a fascinating and complex theory. He bases his theory on some acute observations of people suffering from an array of neurological problems.
Trimble has made great contributions to neuropsychiatry, particularly in the United Kingdom, and that British orientation shows throughout the book, which is broken into 9 chapters:
1. Where Did It All Begin?
2. The Neuroanatomy of Emotion
3. Language and the Human Brain
4. The Other Way of Using Language
5. The Breakdown of Language
6. Music and the Brain
7. Neurotheology I: Epilepsy
8. Neurotheology II: Other Neurological Conditions
9. God, Music, and the Poetry of the Brain
Followed by an epilogue and two appendices:
Appendix 1. Brief Biographies of Some Poets with Bipolar Disorder
Appendix 2. Some Notable Religious Poets
The starting point for the theory is an odd observation: there have been remarkably few poets amongst the many people suffering from different types of epilepsy. He has also found a similar absence of poets with schizophrenia, but on the other hand there are a remarkable number of writers who have had bipolar disorder. He then uses a careful linguistic analysis of the to try and delineate a neurological substrate for poetry and music. He even tries to use his model to provide a brain model to account for religion and the human soul with our sense of existence, purpose and being.
As with so many books that try to find a neurological "explanation" for human religious and spiritual beliefs and insights, I think that he is over-reaching here. There are undoubtedly neurological correlates of meditative and spiritual experiences, but that does not imply that the experiences can be reduced to the firing of groups of neurons.
Over the last forty years, a number of neurologists and psychiatrists, particularly John Cutting, have suggested that we have under-appreciated the contribution of the right hemisphere of the brain to the mood, feeling, rhythm and harmony of language, and Trimble extends this work to suggest that the right hemisphere underpins poetic language. Naturally enough, as a highly experienced neurologist, he does not make the mistake of creating yet another simple right-brain left-brain dichotomy. He knows only too well that the two sides of the brain normally act as one, and we really only see their separate functions in the clinic. Trimble also connects his views on the two hemispheres with Paul Maclean's sixty-year-old theory of the "Triune brain," suggesting that "Links from the limbic structures to the right hemisphere may have remained or developed to a greater degree than those to the left hemisphere."
He goes on to propose that there are seven unique human characteristics that he believes are "Quintessentially driven by the right hemisphere." He calls them the "Seven L's:"
Language
Laudation
Lying
Laughter
Lachrymation
Lyric
Love
This is an amusing alliteration, but recent discoveries in the cognitive, emotional and social lives of many animal species suggests that we are not as unique as we might like to believe.
This book is scholarly and provocative, and easily accessible to a non-specialist. It is unlikely that anyone reading it will agree with every point and every conclusion, but it will doubtless make you think.
Highly recommended.
Richard G. Petty, MD, author of Healing, Meaning and Purpose: The Magical Power of the Emerging Laws of Life
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Richard G. Hunter MD
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United States on 27 December 2017
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Rapid delivery, very well packed, as described. Thanks!
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Silver
5.0 out of 5 stars The Soul in the BrainReviewed in the United States on 1 February 2013
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I am fascinated by how the brain works and how the brain develops. This book is written by a doctor and reveiws other studies of brain function and developmet.
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