The Way The Mind Works - Original Writing
This story starts on a sunny Saturday in a little cul-de-sac named
'forgotten close'. Every morning the first thing Robert does is look
out of the window "another normal day" were his first words, how wrong
he was.
As it was a weekend, Robert stayed in bed for a while, and almost
dozed off, suddenly, he was woken up by his pet rat, grim squeaker,
running franticly around in his cage. This was strange as the little
black and white rat, was never seen running around, in fact he was
hardly ever awake, unless he was hungry or was woken up to get his
bedding changed of course, but none of this was happening.
As he was now wide awake, Robert thought he ought to get dressed and
go downstairs, which he did.
Downstairs, Roberts mum and seven younger sisters had already started
eating their breakfast, infact they were already on their second
helping and running out of cereal.
"You know what happens when you lay in on the weekend, don't you."
noted Michelle, Robert's eldest sister, before putting another spoon
full of sugar puffs in her mouth.
"I know, I know" replied Robert "any-way what's left."
"Hardly any coco pops, a few frosties, some sugar puffs and I think
the corn flakes are in the cup board." said Roberts mum in a grumpy
voice.
Robert look in the cupboard to see nothing, so he filled the only
clean bowl on the table with the only cereal left in the boxes and
finished off the milk. After finishing his cereal, Robert was about to
go back up to his own room, when the unusually loud doorbell rang.
"I'll get it!" shouted Amanda, Robert's youngest sister.
"NO YOU WILL NOT!" snapped Robert's mum.
While, for the first time ever, Robert's mum and Amanda were arguing,
Robert answered the door, and no one was there. It was probably Danny,
he was always playing tricks on Robert, so Robert closed the door and
Leon F. Litwack is the author of Trouble in Mind. Litwack is an American historian and professor of history at the University of California at Berkeley. He was born in 1929 in Santa Barbara, California. In 1951, Litwack received is Bachelor Degree and then continued to further his education. In 1958, he received his Ph. D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager wrote the book that sparked Litwack's curiosity in history. The book was The Growth of the American Republic. Litwack was in the eleventh grade when he first discovered his interest in history. In 1964, Litwack began teaching at the University of California, where he taught an excess of 30,000 students. Litwack has written other books besides Trouble in Mind. One of the books he wrote was Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery in 1979. In 1980, Litwack was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history of this book and in 1981 he was the winner of the National Book Award. He also wrote North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free State, 1790-1860, Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, and The Harvard Guide to African-American History. Litwack has also won many including, the Francis Parkman Prize, the American Book Award, and he was elected to the presidency of the Organization of American Historians. In addition to this, Litwack has been an outstanding teacher and received two notable teaching awards. Litwack's first teaching position was at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he taught from 1958 to 1964. He also taught at the University of South Carolina, Louisiana State University, and the University of Mississippi. As one can see, not only has Litwack been an exceptionally outstanding author, he has also been a very popular and influential teacher.
The point the author, Russell Baker, is making in his essay, “Writing for Myself,” is quite evident. When Mr. Fleagle, Baker’s English teacher, assigned an informal essay to be completed as homework, Baker immediately became baffled by the daunting task. Though reluctant to start, Baker knew that it he had to swallow his animosity toward writing and select a topic to write on.
So as the morning Sun rose. The light beamed on Christopher's face. The warmth of the sun welcomed him to a new day and woke up in a small house in Los Angeles. Christopher is a tall, male, that loves technology and video games. He stretched and went to the restroom it was 9 o'clock and he was thankful it was spring break and didn’t have to go to school. Christopher made his way to the kitchen trying not wake up his parents and made himself breakfast. He served himself cereal Honey Bunches of Oats to be exact with almond milk. Then he took a shower and watched some YouTube videos before doing his homework.
Everything is criticized at every level in this story, the people by the main character, the main character by the author and even the story by the author as well. The cruel egoistic personality of Anders is definitely identifiable through these different levels of criticism. I will prove that the inner motivation of this behaviour derives from Anders' egoistic personality which sometimes makes him cruel against others, sometimes against himself. Furthermore, I will prove that whenever Anders criticizes somebody or something he actually tries to punish because of the imperfectness of the object. In order to make the referring to the different part of the story easier I divide it into three parts. The first part ends when the robbers appear at the door of the bank, the second ends when one of the robbers shoots at Anders and the left is the third part.
Mel Levine’s book, A Mind at a Time, describes many aspects of cognitive psychology and attempts to apply them to the educational system for young children. This book also makes suggestions for parents that have children with cognitive difficulties. The chapters in this book are designated to various aspects of cognitive psychology as they pertain to children. This paper focuses on chapter six in A Mind at a Time, which is titled “Making Arrangements: Our Spatial and Sequential Ordering Systems.” This is a very interesting chapter because it incorporates many aspects of cognitive psychology. In this chapter, Levine focuses on how children organize their world in terms of learning, thinking, and remembering.
In The Heart of Understanding, Thich Nhat Hanh’s uses simple but powerful words and real world examples to illustrate the profound Buddhist philosophy from the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, an important representative of Mahayana Buddhist literature. The Mahayana school of Buddhist teachings emphasizes the doctrine of Sunyata- emptiness. The doctrine of emptiness, one of the most important Mahayana innovations, focuses on the relational aspect of existence. Thich Nhat Hanh coins and introduces a new word- interbeing to explain the state of emptiness. This idea of interbeing not only illustrates emptiness well but also provides understanding of other fundamental Buddhist ideas such as No-Self, impermanence and non-duality.
Science cannot explain everything but it strives to look for answers and relies on proof. Religion is based solely on faith and believes in many things that do not make sense and do not have proof to support its ideas. The belief that there is a substance beyond the element that takes up no space, but is still connected with the body is one of them. The belief that the mind or soul are not linked to the body and that they are both two separate substances. The body is one and the mind is another. This belief is not logical and does not make sense now that without the brain, which is a substance that makes up a body, a person could not function in the world. The mind and the brain are one, and these two elements cannot be separated now that the brain is just another part of the body.
In his unique and thought provoking book Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology, David Abram discusses our relationship with the world, trying to influence us to return to the use of our animal senses as we build our perceptions and interactions with the world around us. Abram (2010) states “This book is about becoming a two-legged animal” (p. 3). It is clear that we already are animals, we have always been, but I think what Abram is trying to do is influence us to return to our animal senses and instincts to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves as humans. Abram (2010) indicates however that “To identify with the sheer physicality of one’s own flesh may seem lunatic” (p. 6), which is perhaps one of the reasons we have separated ourselves from the non-human world. So how does Abram suggest we become more animal? Why does he believe this is so important to our earthly existence? How does he suggest we live in a more right relationship with the world?
William Blake is a literature genius. Most of his work speaks volume to the readers. Blake’s poem “The Mental Traveller” features a conflict between a male and female that all readers can relate to because of the lessons learned as you read. The poet William Blake isn’t just known for just writing. He was also a well-known painter and a printmaker. Blake is considered a seminal figure in the history of poetry. His poems are from the Romantic age (The end of the 18th Century). He was born in Soho, London, Great Britain. He was the third of seven children. Even though Blake was such an inspiration as a writer he only went to school just enough to read and write. According to Bloom’s critical views on William Blake; one of Blake’s inspirations was the Bible because he believed and belonged to the Moravian Church.
In the book by Carl Rogers, A Way of Being, Rogers describes his life in the way he sees it as an older gentleman in his seventies. In the book Rogers discusses the changes he sees that he has made throughout the duration of his life. The book written by Rogers, as he describes it is not a set down written book in the likes of an autobiography, but is rather a series of papers which he has written and has linked together. Rogers breaks his book into four parts.
In “The Brain on trial”, David Eagleman (2011) recounts the horrifying events which occurred on August 1, 1966. Charles Whitman entered the University of Texas with a rifle and secured himself in the bell tower. He then proceeded to shoot and kill 13 people and injure 32 more. Whitman was also shot and killed; however, during his autopsy it was discovered that a tumor was pressing against his amygdala. According to Eagleman, “The amygdala is involved in emotional regulation, especially of fear and aggression” (2011). Therefore, Whitman was possibly experiencing a fundamental change in his emotions and personality due to the tumor. Though Whitman did not survive, his case still poses questions as to whether or not he should be held accountable for his actions; moreover, should Whitman have received the maximum punishment for the murder he committed? Charles Whitman may not have had control over the feelings of “rage and irrational thoughts” (2011) he was experiencing; however, the precision of the attack indicates he was well aware of the actions he was committing.
I chose to read the book, “The Emotional Life of Your Brain” written my Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D. Over the past 30 years as a researcher at Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison he has made great strides connecting human emotions with brain functions and location. Davidson is also a devout Buddhist who incorporates Buddhist teaching and practice into his work. Throughout this book Davidson refers back to his experiences in India and Sir Lanka meditating and teachings from the Dalai Lama. This book covers longevity of Davidson research and the six emotional continuums that human’s fall into, which he calls our emotional fingerprint.
The Cold War period allowed for new understandings into the various “Ways of Thinking”, which helped shape the societal paradigms of the era. These revelations in to the new “Ways of Thinking” is evidenced through Sylvia Plath’s poems, “Daddy”, “The Applicant” and “Morning Song”, and John F. Kennedy’s speech, “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” (1963). The composers are effectively able to reflect the “Ways of Thinking” of the period, such as the scientific, religious, philosophical and economic paradigms, in their compositions through various literary techniques.
The film A Beautiful Mind (Howard, 2011) is a biography about the Life of John Nash a famous mathematician. John Nash is most known for his many contributions to mathematics, such as breaking Riemann’s most perplexing mathematical problem and became famous for what is known as the Nash Solution. Nash begins his career at Princeton where he is a very intelligent and well known mathematical graduate student. While at Princeton Nash begins to try and discover a revolutionary equation in math while battling off many different illusions. The first friend Nash encounters with is his roommate while at Princeton that soon later becomes his best friend. Then when he is promoted to a math professor at a different college, he then begins to think that he is working with the government helping them to break soviet codes. Later on in the movie many of these different people and situations appear to be all an illusion in John Nash mind. Nash has trouble distinguishing between illusions and what is actually going on. So after watching the film A Beautiful mind I have came to the conclusion that John Nash displays symptoms of Schizophrenia, more specifically paranoid schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is a mental illness of the highest order that effects the brain in mysterious ways. It is a disease that’s root has riddled both scientist and doctors for centuries. Although being diagnosed with it is very rare, the results it has produced on humans are very disturbing. It has even affected a few of the great minds in our world’s history, driving them insane, beyond human reason. It throws out all logic and reason that we might have and replaces it with fantasy. It truly is like living in another reality. So what exactly is schizophrenia, what does it do to the human mind, and can its riddle be solved in the future? I will take a close look at these questions and the staggering effect that schizophrenia has had on its victims.