The Mind's Eye By Oliver Sacks

In his memoir, Planet of the Blind, Stephen Kuusisto details his experience of living with a disability of sight, including his initial denial of his legally blind status. His tiring work at passing and his parents’ own denial and support of his refusal to be openly blind both stem from and reflect views of society at large. Members of Kuusisto’s life, just like many people today, ignore blindness and the challenges those with visual impairments have and continue to face. It’s not until he’s struggled for years pretending to see that he fully accepts his legal blindness and begins using a cane and a guide dog.

In this world we have people who are successful and others, who aren’t. But what's make them different from each other? What if I should tell you, that you can be successful by just changing your mind? I don’t mean by just thinking positive, I mean changing the way of viewing thing into a growth mindset. Don't know what a growth mindset is, well you should read a book that will change your way of thinking to become a better you and even successful. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck, explains how there are two different types of mindset. These mindset plays a big role on who’s successful and why. It is not rocket science, the book just explain to us on thing we might have never thought about and bring it to better light. This book can change everything for you.

Since birth, a little girl by the name of Melody was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. That is a disorder that affects movement, muscle tone, and motor skills. It causes reflex movements that the person can’t control and it causes muscle tightness that can affect a part of the body if not the whole body. Ever since she was born, she was loved and cared for but she wasn’t able to say a single word. The book’s title is “Out of My Mind,” by Sharon M. Draper. It focuses on a disabled girl and her thoughts. Most fiction books have author’s purposes and this book’s author’s purpose is to entertain and inform.

The brain is considered the most complex organ in the body. It is responsible for controlling motor function, the body’s ability to balance and the ability to translate information sent to the brain by sensory organs. The mind is described as the faculty of consciousness and thought. It’s where our feeling and emotions originate from and defines who we are as a person. The brain is composed of the visual cortex, which is responsible for processing visual information. In blind individuals the feature that makes up visions still exists in the visual cortex. These features are now used to process information received from the other senses. However, blind individuals are able to view the images because what’s in their mind.

It doesn’t matter if someone is blind or deaf for one to see what is all around they have to use other senses no one knows exist until the time is needed for one rely on it. One learns to rely on other senses to survive once one sense fails. However, teaching someone who can see and hear how to use their other senses can be complicated if they are not receptive to the teacher, or in other cases teach a person to see beyond their normal sight to open up their senses.

After reading the article, “The Maker’s Eye” by Donal Murray, I agree with the author on how writing isn’t a one step process to becoming a strong writer. Murray mentions when writers write and pause to look at others’ point of views, they go back and change their own writing. It’s true when he says that most writers are harsh on themselves. Reflecting upon myself in high school, I believe that looking at other students’ point of views would help me get new ideas because I knew my writing wasn’t the best. For instance, what my tenth grade English teacher did was a “walk through gallery” which allowed students to read other students’ responses towards the assignment and mention one good and bad part of their work. Therefore, being able to view other styles of writing caused me to change bits and pieces within my essay.

The novel “An Unquiet Mind” starts off describing the life of a young girl, Kay. Early off in Kay’s life she is experiencing traumatizing life events. One of those events is a very close encounter with a plane that flew over the elementary playground very low and “It flew into the trees, exploding directly in front of us” (12). Early on it seems much easier to see how she developed the mental illness, manic-depressive (bipolar) illness. Also, her father showed signs of a bipolar illness and maybe it could be heredity. Another traumatizing event was when Kay and her family moved to California and the complete shock from the change in background. This switch also leads to Kay drinking before she attends classes for high school. Just at the age of 16, Kay is beginning to see just how much her mood swings are affecting her friends and how the bipolar illness is changing her life.

Raymond Carver focuses on one of the critical problems that has been present for ages is that people do not know how to interact with those with disabilities in his short story the “Cathedral.” Stereotypes have led to awkward or lack of communication. Breaking down the barrier between disabilities and the world is necessary to develop an understanding for the other and to “look through their eyes.” In the “Cathedral” the husband breaks down many stereotypes of the blind, overcomes barriers in communication and develops an understanding for his wife’s blind friend, Robert.

When one thinks of being blind, they think of someone who literally can not see, but one can also be blind by lacking perception or awareness. People who have sight and yet are blind is clearly seen in the book, To Kill a Mockingbird. To Kill a Mockingbird is a story based in the 1930’s when racial issues are heavily present. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, and throughout history, people or groups of people have existed who can literally see the world around them, and yet are blind to the truth; but, as seen in the novel, some of these people’s eyes can be opened to the truth either by empathy or experiences.

Throughout history, a human being was always reliant on the primary sensory areas. An ability to communicate and contract languages is considered to be a unique ability of human nation as no other species show an equal amount of complexity in terms of the structure and sound combination. On the other hand, primary visual cortex provides a skill set in order to identify the objects presented in the world, the distance towards them as well as to design a set of actions in order to incorporate some items such as a stone or a pen. The understanding of these systems is crucial, especially for those who suffer from strokes and tumors and as a result lost the ability to visually recognize objects or hear other people. This work will focus of the structure

After investigating spatial cognition and the construction of cognitive maps in my previous paper, "Where Am I Going? Where Have I Been: Spatial Cognition and Navigation", and growing in my comprehension of the more complex elements of the nervous system, the development of an informed discussion of human perception has become possible. The formation of cognitive maps, which serve as internal representations of the world, are dependent upon the human capacities for vision and visual perception (1). The objects introduced into the field of vision are translated into electrical messages, which activate the neurons of the retina. The resultant retinal message is organized into several forms of sensation and is

In the words of George Orwell, “If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” Language has been spoken for over 350,000 years. It has expanded tremendously, but its power has never changed. The use of language shapes peoples' perceptions and the depth of interactions because it can demean, avoid, portray emphasis, persuade, and conceal from simple phrases such as “I feel like” and “just”.

In “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger, an English art critic, argues that images are important for the present-day by saying, “No other kind of relic or text from the past can offer such direct testimony about the world which surrounded other people at other times. In this respect images are more precise and richer literature” (10). John Berger allowed others to see the true meaning behind certain art pieces in “Ways of Seeing”. Images and art show what people experienced in the past allowing others to see for themselves rather than be told how an event occurred. There are two images that represent the above claim, Arnold Eagle and David Robbins’ photo of a little boy in New York City, and Dorothea Lange’s image of a migratory family from Texas; both were taken during the Great Depression.

Language is an integral part of human existence. It is not only a crucial tool in which we use to convey meaning to others, but also a cultural construct passed down from previous generations that helps to define who we are and how we relate to others. Ultimately language defines our relationships with others, the way we use language is shaped by our own socio- cultural background and also that of whoever we may be communicating with. Self awareness of how our own use of language has been shaped by our background and an understanding of what shapes others use of language leads to better communication, understanding and empathy.

Hannah Arendt presents in her novel, The Life of the Mind, a theory she refers to as the “two-in-one.” She builds her theory off of a Socratic proposition. Socrates stated that it would be better for a group of men to be out of tune with each other than for him to be out of tune with himself. Here, however, lies a paradox. How can one be out of tune with itself? Arendt states that “you always need at least two tones to produce a harmonious sound” (183). Yet when you appear to others, you are one, otherwise you would be unrecognizable. But Arendt points out that you do not only appear to others, you also exist and appear for yourself. In doing so, you become more than one. As Arendt paradoxically states, “A difference is inserted into my Oneness” (183).