As I mentioned yesterday, I started reading Proust was a Neuroscientist. The intriguing premise of this book is that discoveries in neuroscience have their parallels in arts and literature. Today I wish to address the author’s treatment of the writer and poet, Walt Whitman, how it applies to neuroscience and explore whether Whitman’s approach can […]
Neuroanatomy Those of you who follow my blog know that my interest in the brain stems from my older brother who is autistic, profoundly retarded and has never uttered a word in his life. I had the good fortune to be able to study neuroanatomy with a colleague, Dr. Andrew Lautin, and participate in the […]
I was browsing in the bookstore in the philosophy section, where I feel the most comfortable, when I came across Existentialism is a Humanism and A Commentary on The Stranger by Jean-Paul Sartre. [1] These days I am looking to strengthen my knowledge of existentialism, in light of my recent experience trying to connect with […]
More processing Those of you following my blog know that I just returned from a visit to my brother Michael, who is autistic, profoundly retarded and nonverbal. In my past few posts I have detailed the visit and its disappointing outcome. I am trying to regroup, using my blog as a forum to articulate ideas […]
It seems that on this trip I am either starting something or ending something. I’m back in Chicago area, having ended a trip to New Jersey to see my original family, including Michael, my older autistic, profoundly retarded and nonverbal brother. I wasn’t hoping for a story book ending on our day trip to see […]
I’m getting ready to return to Chicago after my side trip to New Jersey. My much-anticipated visit with my brother Mike was underwhelming, to say the least. It was a return to reality, in essence quite similar to my previous visits with him. It seems that I spent the intervening years between visits romanticizing my […]
Yesterday’s post turned out to be more of a “Dear Diary” entry than I had intended. I should have waited an appropriate period to process my time with Mom rather than writing from the midst of the experience. Who wants to read a laundry list of the day’s events? That’s what journal notes are for: a […]
Words actually can express practically anything. But one must have an understanding and some kind of formulation of ideas to be expressed. What happens when there are conflicting thoughts and feelings? One way to manage is to express all sides to the conflict and calculate pros and cons of each position. But even so, the […]
Beautiful summer twilights depress the hell out of me. The same holds true about beautiful music by Bach, Hayden, Mozart and other great composers. I think it is the fact that these things are so beautiful is depressing me. The summer day at about 4:30 to 6:00 to me, represents death. I guess to the […]
I came across some thoughts I wrote down a number of years ago. They are amazingly consistent with thoughts I have today, about the possibility of reaching out to my older brother and actually communicating. Mike is my older brother, who is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. June 19, 2001 I’m sitting in Mike’s room […]
