The Soul in the Brain: The Cerebral Basis of Language, Art, and Belief [Hardcover]

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

excellent book
you can skip the neuroanatomy if you want to
the examples from clinical practice are great, and from the history of poetry better!

Connections between brain function, language, art and religion are considered with an emphasis on neuro-science perfect for either college-level collections strong in science, health or social science and for public lending collections alike. It was inspired by the writings of many of his patients - many of whom have epilepsy, psychosis or other affective disorders - and considers the underling science of how and why the human species has held strong religious beliefs and connections with art. An intriguing, lively survey.

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