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1-Page Summary of A Whole New Mind

Overview

You Are Not Your Brain explores our deceptive brain messages that tell us we aren’t good enough. It also tells us how to change this detrimental wiring by challenging these brain messages and focusing on something else. This will help rewire our brains so they work for us, not against us.

Scientists have shown that the brain is divided into a left and right hemisphere. This has been supported by modern science.

While it’s known that both the left and right hemispheres work together for any activity, each hemisphere takes charge in certain activities. The left hemisphere focuses on breaking things into details, while the right hemisphere provides a broader view of things.

Language is used in different ways. For example, we use it to communicate information and exchange symbols (such as words). The left hemisphere of the brain processes this information sequentially, whereas the right side interprets context. If you don’t have a healthy right hemisphere, you won’t be able to understand irony or metaphors.

The left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for reasoning and logical thinking. It’s what tells you to be alarmed when someone points a gun at you because it has learned that guns are dangerous.

The right hemisphere doesn’t recognize the gun, but it can draw on more intuitive knowledge and recognize other signs of danger. For example, an angry facial expression. This is because all cultures tend to interpret facial expressions similarly.

The left and right halves of the brain are responsible for different functions. The two sides work together, but each side specializes in a certain way of thinking.

Our brain is divided into two halves. The left hemisphere focuses on details and the right hemisphere looks at things from a more global perspective.

Big Idea #1: Historically, the importance of right-brain thinking has been undervalued.

The left hemisphere of the brain is known to be responsible for more analytical tasks.

The idea that the two hemispheres are unequal is actually a myth. It comes from the fact that analytical tasks are more controlled by the left hemisphere, and we know that the right side of our body is controlled by our left brain.

The left side of the brain is more analytical and logical, while the right side is more intuitive and creative. The two sides are often used as metaphors for different approaches to life:

Left-Directed Thinking is thought to be logical and sequential. It’s literal, functional, textual and analytic. These traits would also dominate a Left-Directed thinker’s approach to life.

Right-Directed Thinking would be characterized by being simultaneous, metaphorical, aesthetic, context-sensitive and synthetic.

The left side of the brain has been valued more than the right. People who think this way are seen as successful, and it’s a common approach to life. This can be seen in standardized testing, which rewards students for arriving at one correct answer after a series of steps that depend on logic and reasoning.

Right-Directed Thinking was once undervalued, but that is no longer the case. It’s now important to see the big picture and Right-Directed thinkers are better at doing so.

Big Idea #2: In the Information Age, it was important to think logically and be able to analyze information. However, in the Conceptual Age, we need Right-Directed Thinking more than ever.

The Information Age has enabled us to be successful by accumulating knowledge, specifically through college education. The more people who pursued this method of success, the better off we became as a society.