Barbara Lipska's The neuroscientist who lost her mind

 

The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind is a book by Barbara Lipska, one of the leading experts in mental disease neuroscience, and her experiences following the diagnosis of melanoma. This disease had spread to her brain, with the result being that with a few months, her frontal lobe, which presides over cognition, had begun to shut down. She ended up descending to madness, often exhibiting symptoms that were associated with schizophrenia and dementia. A consequence of this situation was that she ended up being treated through a number of measures including immunotherapy, which worked well and allowed for a marked improvement. Thus, within eight weeks of the event beginning, Lipska returned to a life of normalcy. However, despite this being the case, one major difference that Lipska experienced was that she remembered her entire experience with considerable clarity. Lipska’s experiences can be considered to have been quite important in contributing to her work as a neuroscientist. It allowed for the development of a situation where there was an addition of value to the way that she understood the workings of the human mind and the manner through which it responds to a diversity of stimuli.

The lessons that Lipska had because of her experiences allowed her to better understand the mind and the brain. This is especially the case when one considers that in this book, she explains the connections that are there between brain injury, mental illness, and age and the way that they end up changing the cognition, memory, personality, and behavior of individuals. She further tells the story of her firsthand experience of the issues surrounding mental problems and how she was better able to understand the processes that were taking place. Moreover, based on her experiences, she goes as far as revealing which parts of the minds of individuals end up disappearing and those that remain. A consequence of this scenario is that she makes use of her experiences as the basis upon which to study neuroscience, especially mental illness and the ways that they can end up creating an environment within which it is difficult for individuals to attain clarity over their lives.

Despite their frustrating aspects, it is important to note that cognitive lapses that she experiences are separate enough to be recognized. Thus, even Lipska, in her condition, was able to understand that the cause of her problems was her brain being placed under a lot of stress. The effects that it had on her personality are also significant because she ended up losing the capacity to determine the impact of her actions on others. The love that she displayed towards her family suddenly turned to tantrums and harshness to such an extent that she essentially treats them as strangers. However, once the tumors in her brain were in remission, she finds it quite difficult to remember the behavior and moods that she had displayed and put so much strain on those who had been with her at the time. Lipska therefore writes as a means of making sure that there is a greater understanding for the actions that mentally ill individuals take.

Lipska leverages her understanding of the complex connections in the brain as a means of creating connections and relationships between the diversity of functional areas within it. She is therefore able to weave together real and tactile scenes as well as characters from her life to provide an insight into the experiences she underwent. It is also noteworthy that because of this approach, Lipska is able to succeed in a wide range of criteria since she is adept at the employment of her vast trove of knowledge as a neuroscientist to apply it to clinical settings where human research is being conducted. She is also able to provide a rich experience of the senses that she had following the loss of her mind, as seen through her attempt to ensure that there is the promotion of a scenario where the reader might taste, feel, and smell in order to better understand what takes place in the mind of mentally ill individuals.

Lipska also takes on the pertinent step of comparing the experience she underwent to that of her research animals. She believes that the severance of communication between her hippocampus and prefrontal cortex is a major cause of her mental illness. She compares this to the prefrontal cortical connections in rats that she disrupts in the lab as she studies schizophrenia. The significance of this observation is based on the fact that she felt the unpleasantness of the situation, which, because it was happening firsthand to her, allowed her to feel the way that she recognizes her research animals feel. She comes to the realization that her only chance at surviving this event is through an immunotherapy treatment that, despite not having been proven completely due to its being in the early stages of testing, is her best chance at returning to normalcy. It is important that because of her decision, she essentially took the place of the experimental animal.

She explains that her neurological symptoms came about because of inflammation, which was caused by the immunotherapy. This experimental process is one that allowed her to survive because following the swelling being treated using steroids, her neurological symptoms not only abased, but they also led to a scenario where her madness was also cured. Lipska therefore became a survivor of an event that is usually extremely difficult for individuals to come back from. She was given the hope of a total remission and despite there being considerable anxiety concerning recurrence, she recognized the reality of her having beaten this problem at that time. As a survivor with memories of what had taken place, Lipska is therefore in a prominent position when it comes to better understanding how best to handle research concerning neurological treatment of the symptoms of mental illness.

In conclusion, the manner through which Lipska grappled with her identity as well as her gradual acceptance of her condition is significant in allowing her to be more effective in her work. This is especially the case when it comes to the way that she grapples with her mental illness and the way that she connects her own suffering to the sense of identity that individuals will experience in their lives. The grasp with the sense of identity that Lipska experienced was therefore essential in enhancing her capabilities as a neuroscientist. It allowed her to gain a different perspective concerning how to describe the experiences of mental patients and how best to handle their afflictions.

The issue of race in the works of bell hooks and Luther Standing Bear

 

Gloria Jean Watkins, also known by her pen name Bell Hooks, is a social activist, feminist, professor, and author. She borrowed her pen name from her maternal great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks, because she was an individual that was never afraid to speak out and the result was that she was greatly admired. Hooks was born in 1952 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky to working class parents.[1] Hopkinsville was a segregated town and from the beginning of her life, Hooks had to go to public schools which were also segregated. Furthermore, as an avid reader in an environment of segregation, she ended up writing concerning the considerable adversities that she had to endure especially when she had to make a transition to an integrated school, where the majority of students and teachers were white; a scenario that was quite new to her. However, following her education, she began her career in 1976 at the University of Southern California where she was an English professor and senior lecturer in Ethnic Studies.[2] It was during her three years at this institution that she ended up having her first published work, And There We Wept in 1978.[3] The major focus of her writings has been on capitalism, gender, and race and the manner through which these have been prominent in the perpetuation of class domination and oppression in society. She is an individual that has not only published numerous books, but also participated in public lectures as well as documentary films. Thus, Hooks is therefore an individual that, through her works, has been able to undertake the task of addressing such issues as sexuality, mass media, history, art, and feminism.

One of Bell Hooks’ most notable works is Touching the Earth, which makes an attempt to show the way that the African American people are connected to the earth. She promotes the idea that African Americans should undertake to ensure that they reclaim the spiritual legacy in such a way that they end up connecting their personal wellbeing to that of the earth.[4] Furthermore, she suggests that it is necessary for African Americans to recognize that the fight to save the environment and the fight against racism are actually competing concerns, especially when one considers that the agrarian South has a direct connection with racism. The importance of this factor cannot be underestimated because it shows the manner through which the African American singular focus on bringing an end to racism has created a situation where they are completely divorced from nature.[5] Hooks further considers the way that their living close to nature has a beneficial effect on African Americans because they were able to attain a spirit of wonder that advocated for a reverence of life. However, because of their desire to escape the racial injustice that was prevalent in the South, they moved to the cities of the North, which resulted in the loss of connection with the agrarian South. In this way, rather than being connected to nature, they missed the entire connection to such an extent that they were forced to become what they were not. The sensual beauty of the South was gone, replaced by the divorce from community that is a constant feature of life in cities.[6] Thus, Hooks makes the connection between nature and race and considers the human divorce from nature to be the cause of racism.

In the essays Indian Wisdom by Luther Sanding Bear and Bell Hooks’ Touching the Earth, there are two sections in the former and one in the latter. These sections address the various concerns that the authors seek to bring to public notice. The first section in Indian Wisdom is one that seeks to address the matter of nature and the manner through which it was one of the mainstays of Native American society because of the close connection that they had to nature.[7] The second section makes an analysis of Native American religion and the way that it was an essential aspect of their lives based on not only their close connection to nature, but also the way that they did not fear nature. The section in Touching the Earth, on the other hand, addresses the connection between black people and the land and the way that because of this connection, they essentially lost their humanity when the moved away from the rural South to the urban North.

A number of shared themes are found in both Indian Wisdom and Touching the Earth. One of the most significant of these is the connection between humans and nature. This connection is seen in page 202 by the way that Standing Bear addresses the way that the Native Americans, specifically the Lakota, were very connected to nature to the extent of their being referred to as naturalists.[8] In page 363, Hooks also addresses the connection to nature, stating that by loving the earth, humans are able to love themselves. Another theme that is brought to the fore is that of the attempt to tame nature.[9] This is seen through the way that Standing Bear in page 205 shows the attempts by the white man to tame nature, and Hooks’ in page 365 who addresses the way that African Americans migrated from the rural South to the industrialized North.[10] Also, the theme of racism comes to the fore, as seen through the way that Native Americans are viewed as savages in page 205 of Indian Wisdom and the matter of racial harassment that black people encountered in the South as seen in page 366 of Hooks’ Touching the Earth.[11] The theme of spirituality and religion is also pertinent in Indian Wisdom page 206 and Touching the Earth page 365, which are addressed through the concern about the connection between spirituality and nature. Conservation is another theme that is common in both essays, and they each address the manner through which nature should be allowed to remain as it is for the welfare of all individuals. Finally, the theme of fear is also prominent, as seen through the way that Standing Bear, in page 205, seeks to promote the idea that white people are afraid of nature and this is the reason why the seek to tame it, and the fear of being out of place due to alienation of nature in page 365 of Hooks’ Touching the Earth.[12]

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[1] "Bell Hooks Biography," Encyclopedia of World Biographies, https://www.notablebiographies.com/He-Ho/Hooks-Bell.html.

[2] Gary L Anderson and Kathryn G Herr, Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice (Sage Publications, 2007), 706.

[3] "Bell Hooks Speaks Up," The Sandspur, https://issuu.com/thesandspur/docs/112-17.

[4] Bell Hooks, "Touching the Earth," At Home on the Earth: Becoming  (2010): 364.

[5] Mayumi Toyosato, "Living in Place as African American Tradition: Inhabitory Consciousness in Her Own Place,"  (2004): 28.

[6] Peter HH Kahn Jr and Batya Friedman, "On Nature and Environmental Education: Black Parents Speak from the Inner City," Environmental Education Research 4, no. 1 (1998): 36.

[7] Chief Luther Standing Bear, "Indian Wisdom (1933)," The Great New Wilderness Debate  (1998): 202.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Hooks,  363.

[10] Ibid., 365; Bear,  205.

[11] 205; Hooks,  366.

[12] 365; Bear,  205.

I am not your Negro

 

James Baldwin can be considered one of the foremost African-American thinkers of the twentieth century. This is because of the manner through which he was able to address the diverse matters that involved racial relations and the way that the character of the United States tended to contradict itself. In I am not your Negro, the opinions of this individual are addressed in such a concise manner that it becomes possible to gain an understanding of the way through which he was able to develop his perspective of American society. A black man born in the North, his visits to the South and being witness to the civil rights movement and the white reaction to it, made him an important observe of events. Being a Northerner does not seems to have excluded him from or made him oblivious to the plight of African-Americans in the South because Baldwin seems to have also become an important player in the advancement of the civil rights movement. He sought to make sure that there was the creation of an environment in the United States that sought to address the racial issue in such a way that there was a candid discussion of all the events that had taken place to precipitate it. In this case, he seems to suggest that individuals in the country, especially members of the white community, even the most well-intentioned, seem to want to sweep the racial issue under the carpet and move on as if nothing happened. However, Baldwin is of the opinion that there has to be a national dialogue concerning the contrasting stances on race so that it can be possible to ensure that this issue is dealt with once and for all.

Despite this stance, Baldwin also seeks to promote the idea that it is in the interests of all those involved, especially members of the African-American community, to continue fighting for their rights. This is especially considering that in the rest of society, there are often contrasting opinions concerning how to address the historical injustices that they have suffered. One of the most significant aspects of this documentary is that it shows the various reactions that the white community tends to have towards the oppressive history that African-Americans had to undergo. Among these is the contrast that can be seen between the rage that some feel when the issue is raised, on one hand, and the empathy that seems to come about depending on the circumstances. However, despite these feelings, there is often a failure to ensure that the issue that is the root of the problem, essentially race, is addressed. Instead, there are often attempts to make sure that there is the advancement of the idea that all that happened took place in the past and that everyone should just move on. This failure to consider the historical injustices that have taken place throughout American history can be considered a means through which to avoid addressing them and is also anticipatory of the contemporary world, where the issue of race is still extremely prominent in American society. Thus, Baldwin points out the contrasts and hypocrisy of American society and this is in such a way that it has been unable to come to terms with its racial past in order to prevent its continued prevalence in society.