incredibly useful narration of the author’s experience
My Stroke of Insight is an incredibly useful narration of the author’s experience, both as a brain scientist and a person who also later happened to become a victim of a stroke. In her experience, especially in her 30s, when Jill Bolte Taylor was flourishing in her career practicing as a medic, a lot of what happened in her life has been documented, and this book will act as a powerful manual for students, researchers, and casual readers as well. The author finds a way of expounding the functionality of the two hemispheres of the brain in an engaging and hence practical and easy to relate to complex brain processes.
The author incorporates her background in brain anatomy, and when weaved with her experience, she was able to deduce the totality of the nature of the brain’s functions. In a nutshell, Jill accomplishes to explain the biological mechanisms of the brain as a whole, its pair of hemispheres, and the various cells harbored within. She also explores the intricacies of the metaphysical aspects of our experience of reality, and the fact that the author was already fascinated by the totality of our experience concerning the brain acted as leverage for Jill to further her expertise and educate others in a more personal level. The book also aims at portraying the incredible power of the brain, which the author claims of how we underutilize its capabilities. She further went to quote how we were feeling animals who tend to think other than the more oblique stand a person with no knowledge of the brain would take as to how we are thinking creatures who tend to feel the experiences around them.
In the event where the author experiences a stroke, she experiences radical changes in the manner she perceives any sensory triggers. The hemorrhage in her left brain restricts her ability to make any proactive decision or respond to any event. With only the right side of her brain, offering optimal performance, the author had firsthand experience in the usage of one side of her brain. From when she was utterly dissociated from her reality and senses to the time of her full recovery, the stages that the author underwent in an attempt to reinstate her whole functionality exemplified constant effort to train her autonomous system to perform tasks that she used to perform effortlessly before the occurrence of her brain hemorrhage. Since suffering brain damage and unable to walk or even make plans, the author was able to reinstate heer optimal functionality.
Much care with knowledge of the temperament of a patient aiming to recover from a stroke is mandatory. This knowledge by a caregiver ought to be continuously applied during their engagement with a patient, and patients with limited knowledge into psychology and brain functionality could need more attention compared to a patient the sort of our author. Activities that would aid the recovery process of a patient include assistance with trivial tasks, to cognitive therapy where the caregiver aims at determining their mental disposition. The accurate monitoring of thought processes of a patient accelerates the process of recovery from severe brain injuries, and My Stroke of Insight embodies this philosophy at its core as a driving force to full recovery. Notably, the essence of full recovery can be traced to connecting with one’s feelings and psyche. The author highlights such elements as being central to the rehabilitation of the mighty organ whose powers are tremendously underutilized.