Thriving in Mind: The Art and Science of Using Your Whole Brain

By Katherine Benziger

Good+ trade paperback. Tight, square, text is clean and unmarked, has doctor label on title page, covers have some wear/rubbing therefore the lower grading. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1880931117
• ISBN13: 9781880931110
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: K B A Pub
• Length: 340 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Insightful Analysis

Lots of people are familiar with the idea of "right brain" and "left brain" thinking, and some are familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality test. This book goes beyond these ideas and describes the biological basis for how we process. It provides insightful analysis that validates all four thinking preferences. I like the way the book goes into how our thinking preferences affect us in our relationships at work and at home, with our colleagues, friends, spouses and children. For those who think they may be having a midlife crisis, there's a wonderful description of how people who have "falsified type" (not been true to their natural thinking preference) will hit their late thirties/early forties and feel depressed and anxious. This isn't the first book to assert that the midlife crisis is a natural result of not being true to oneself, but it may be one of the only books that provides clear direction on how to remedy the problem. The book also reviews how introversion and extroversion affect our choices. I always thought introverts were shy and extroverts weren't, but really introversion and extroversion are again methods of processing (introverts have an active internal processing method, so they can get overwhelmed by too much external stimulation, while extroverts require stimulation). The book isn't going to win any writing awards, but the ideas absolutely transcend the writing style.

Illuminating, Interesting and Insightful

Four different areas of the brain, frontal left, frontal right, basal left and basal right control human thinking and skill sets. Everyone has a preferred quadrant of the brain and when working within it, they find things easy, natural and time flies by. However, when they are working with skills outside of their preference, there are 100 times more electrons firing in the brain. So when you're working a job that is not utilizing skills in your brain preference, you become tired because your brain is literally working 100 times harder. I found the concepts not only interesting but also very illuminating. I know myself fairly well already, however these concepts take it to a deeper level of understanding why you are the way you are. They resonate when you see yourself and affirm that there are reasons why some things are so difficult for you. That affirmation is especially important when you are a right-brained person living in a world that monetarily values left brain skills. I have always felt like an odd shaped peg trying to fit myself into a round or square hole. In the beginning of the book, the author includes a test, which I found to be extremely accurate, not only with myself, but half dozen family members I administered it to. I was astounded to see the exact phrases I use when communicating with others. One observation I found interesting is that we befriend people who match our preference, however we marry people who are strong in our weak areas, as if to complete a whole. Another is spending most your time working in a non-preference quadrant can lead to depression and illness. The author includes ways that we can strengthen our weak areas and utilize those skills while keeping our energy up. I have found this book to be a valuable insight. Since criticism is so easy and writing a book is such as huge task, it is with hesitation that I state my only fault with this book. I found about a half dozen instances of awkward sentences that did not flow properly and several typos. It was the awkward sentence structures that really broke the flow of reading, which required me to reread them in order to understand what the author meant to say.