Search - My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey

A mind-blowing account of the author's experience before, during, and after a major hemorrhagic stroke due to an AVM. This book leads to the question, "who am I" or, "who is this 'I' I take myself to be?". Very thought-provoking for those with an open mind.

What makes this book especially interesting is that the author is a brain researcher and describes and explains the way our brains work so anyone can understand.

We clearly have far more control over our daily experience than we imagine. Read this book to find out how and why.

With much insight, this book fascinates and, ultimately, inspires us to tend the gardens of our minds.

Highly recommended.

This is one of the best books I have read this year! Taylor's book covers a number of aspects of having a stroke. Because she is a brain scientist, she was able to notice what was happening as her stroke progressed. She then talks about her rehabilitation and includes many sympathetic experiences that can teach us all about relating to stroke victims. The last part of the book discusses her experience reentering life having lost and regained the use of the left half of her brain. This is the part that never shuts up and often plays negative, nagging tapes in our heads. (Also is the mathematical and spatial part, so it's not all bad!) As she recovered, she found that she had control over what circuits she rewired in her brain and the last chapter is part A Course in Miracles, part Eckhart Tole. I found it very uplifting and inspiring and encouraging that the more we choose to feel, say, joy, the more those pathways become ingrained in our minds. A must read!

This is the story of a brain scientist’s reflections on what a stroke does to the person as they are experiencing it. It is told from the author’s own experience. Indeed, I found the most fascinating part of this book was the first-hand description of what it was like to experience a stroke.

The second-most helpful part of this book was the practical suggestions for interacting with someone who has had a stroke. For many, that part of the book alone is worth reading.

The story is short – with the most details to befound in the morning of the actual stroke. Interspersed in the narrative are chapters about how the brain works, particularly the different roles and functions of the right and left hemispheres. Author Jill Taylor experiences a death of the neurons in the left side of the brain, the seat of language, mathematics, ego, and logic. This frees her right brain and leads to what she describes as nirvana, being one with the world.

While initially interesting, I found the description of the right and left functions to be eventually repetitive. The call for readers to free themselves from the tyranny of the left brain and experience the peace that the right brain brings was reiterated over and over. It left my(left) brain impatient.

Though not the most satisfying book in the beauty of its prose or the flow of the structure, I think it’s a worthy read for the insights scattered throughout.