Mindsight: A Reflection

This semester I have been taking three independent studies, and I plan on sharing my final papers mid May. Until then, I thought you might get a kick out of some informal reflections.

For Theological Reflections on Trauma, my overseeing professor and I wrote in the syllabus that I would read five books and write a 3-4 page reflection each, and how it tied to my overarching theme of “theological reflections on trauma.” They are not formal papers by a long shot, but people might be intrigued enough to read the books for themselves.

Each essay got an 86, which feels about right.

Reflection 2: Mindsight

Dr. Daniel J. Siegel’s Mindsight is a fascinating read on neuroscience and how it can be applied to therapy sessions, and our own wellness. Siegel introduces his reader to over a dozen patients who in some form or another were unable to make sense of their inner world. Weaving between stories and the science of neurology, Siegel builds our knowledge of the brain and uses these people as a guide to better understand our own innermost needs to connect with ourselves and others. Daniel Siegel’s book Mindsight has proved to be a highly educational resource for me on the workings on the human brain and in doing so provided a newfound appreciation for God’s creation of the mind, and has furthered my ability to communicate this knowledge with children.

Siegel’s eagerness to give his readers a strong foundation of the human brain, not merely healing techniques, is made clear immediately. In the first chapter he offers a “HANDy” model of the brain, using our closed fist (15). Our tucked-in thumb represents the limbic region which holds the hippocampus and amygdala, our front knuckles the prefrontal cortex (just behind the forehead), the back of our fist the posterior cortex, and our wrist the brain stem. With this baseline, each subsequent chapter focuses intimately on a specific neurological function or relationship. Having begun Mindsight with very little prior-knowledge of the human brain beyond left-brain right-brain characteristics, Siegel’s care to ensure his readers understand location and functions of the different parts of the brain was highly beneficial for me.

In the midst of reading Siegel’s vivid illustrations of the brain, Psalm 139 seemed to play in the background of my own mind, singing a beautiful duet with Mindsight. While learning minute details of our mind: “The pain of social rejection is mediated in an area of the middle pre-frontal cortex that also registers physical pain from a bodily injury. (125)” how could I not hear the Psalmist declaring “For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. (139:13-15)”? As he spoke of healing: “It is never too late to heal the mind and to bring to ourselves and to those around us the compassion and kindness that arise from that healing and integration.(188)” how could I not be reminded of the Gospel and the ultimate healer who lives and teaches us this compassion? The measure of intimate detail needed to create our very selves is stunning and I am excited to communicate this to my readers.

One of the most helpful things I found in Siegel’s communication style (apart from his illustrative stories and engaging mindfulness techniques) was how he took the time to describe his concepts in multiple ways. Drawing upon his experience as a pediatrician, Siegel explained the brain functions and healing techniques with not only professionals in mind, but his younger patients as well. There is a touching story in the prefrontal cortex chapter where he tells his 7-year-old patient Leanne that her mother acted like she no longer cared because of her “broken brain.” When Leanne said she thought love happened in the heart, not the head, he first educates to the reader saying “the network of nerve cells around the heart and throughout the body communicate directly with the social parts of our brain and they send that heartfelt sense right up to our middle prefrontal areas.(12)” To the small Leanne he explained her mother’s brain wasn’t working properly so “she couldn’t pick up the signals that I was sure were still in her heart.(12)” After his variety of examples I felt confident in what I had learned at the end of a chapter.

While reading, I often thought of my own future audience and wondered if I could create my own way to relay this information. This Friday at youth group I had a wonderful confirmation that I could. An 8th grader asked what I meant in Bible study when I said our thought processes could change the biological structure and functions of our brain. While the boys played dodge-ball, half a dozen of us found ourselves having a candid conversation about neuroscience. Wishing to relay the information in an original and memorable way for the 10-13-year-olds, I quickly showed them Siegel’s HANDy brain model, and told them a story:

“Professor Cortex (the Prefrontal Cortex) lives in your forehead. She is an explorer, a love doctor, a detective, and she cares about everything and everyone. Professor Cortex communicates her findings to Amy the Amygdala, who experiences our fight-flight-freeze-feint emotions. She is often very nervous. Each night, Amy goes next door to her friend the Hippo...campus. While there, Amy tells the Hippo about the day. The Hippo keeps a scrapbook of all your adventures, taking special care to log the emotions, because like an elephant, hippos never forget. This get-together is what happens when we dream, and is why we might have nightmares when we’re stressed: The Hippo is helping Amy process the memories.

“Now, there are two ways to store your memories: Explicitly, and implicitly. Suppose you were bitten by your neighbor’s dog, Grover. Professor Cortex and Amy immediately tell the Hippo, who makes a new scrapbook page declaring you are now afraid of dogs. The next time you see a dog, you will remember you are afraid because of Grover. The readily recovered memories are called explicit memories. But sometimes Amy can’t take what’s going on so she closes her eyes and plugs her ears to what Professor Cortex is saying, and cannot relay the information to the Hippo. Later you might see a dog and think “dogs are dangerous” but not remember you were bitten. This is an implicit memory. Amy didn’t block the memory on purpose, but just as we plug our ears when our surroundings are too loud, sometimes she cannot calm down or communicate effectively. There are tools we can learn to teach Amy what to do when overwhelmed. But above all it’s important to understand all of our brain functions love us and are trying their best to take care of us. So we should take the time to learn to care for them.”

We continued talking about learned patterns, and one youth asked if she could keep my drawings of Amy the Amygdala screaming at the Hippocampus. The following Sunday my co-volunteer said she realized the ever increasing fear she experienced at her new job was exactly how I had described our functional neuron systems and how they reenforce negative or positive association. “It made complete sense when you said we walk through trails that are already blazed, instead of creating new paths.” She said, face glowing. “I realized the first few days at work had been so hard, my neurons created a path of negativity and dread! So now I can figure out how to retrain myself!” The girls’ fascination at youth group, and the relief of my friend served as positive reinforcements that this information can help not only me and self-harmers, but indeed anyone I meet who needs help understanding their own mind. I would like to read more from this author. It it is so encouraging, knowing I am on the right track.

Works Cited

Siegel, Daniel. Mindsight. New York: Random House, Inc. 2010

The Bible. English Standard Version. Crossway Bibles, 2001