The Narrowly-Focused Mind
My mother used to tell me “You have a one-track mind.” And she was right. I still do, and that is one of my problems.
But it also a problem of many other people. They are well-versed in certain areas, but ignorant of most others. McGilchrist would say their left-hemisphere (with its tendency towards specialization) has become dominant. This was probably what I was writing about in my posting Stupid Friends. People get obsessed with (focus on) fixed ideas and make stupid mistakes as a result.
It’s not hard to see they are behaving stupidly, but it is harder to see what is making them behave so stupidly – because these motivations are almost always unconscious – as I said in another posting Most of What is Going on is Unconscious.
Consider how I left my family’s religion. When I went to the University, all of a sudden I realized that our tiny church was not important – compared to all the other things going on in the world. This was the result of my having a more broadly focused mind. How I got that, when I am so narrowly-focused in many other ways, is one of my life’s mysteries. But to this day, on one else in our extended family has had this insight. I regard them as strange people, and they regard me as a strange person – for being so different.
I have learned to regard this difference as an advantage, keeping carefully in mind that for most it is an acute disadvantage.
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