The Slippery Brain Sodality

"Our inviolable uniqueness lies in our poetic ability to say unique and obscure things, not in our ability to say obvious things to ourselves alone." (123)

"that people are somehow always going to be so slimy and slippery (Satre's viscousness) that they will escape "objective" explanation." (347)

-from Richard Rorty Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature

Lots of interesting notions from our first "official" gathering last week.  Thanks all.  A few things I want to mull, for me and any one else interested ...

The more I think about it, the more I think that "slippery brain" is actually a reasonably discrete category/phenomenon, at least as discrete as most ways we characterize peoples' brains/minds, at least for me.  Some people fit that category more or less, others don't.  Thinking about well-known people who seemed to me obviously to fit the category helped me along these lines: Bob Dylan, Pablo Picasso, Oliver Sachs, Vilanyur Ramachandran, Joseph Heller (Catch-22).  All I think have brains that "change states frequently/rapidly, making it disconcerting to others and (sometimes?) to oneself."

This definition is a bit more specific than "a brain that is aware that it doesn't always function quite the way one wants it too/expects it too, and has learned/is learning that that is actually a feature rather than a bug."  And emphasizes a little less how it is experienced by the person her/him self.   That seems to me useful, particularly for thinking a bit more about whether slippery brain is a "feature or a bug."

Unpredictablity can be disconcerting to others, as well as to oneself.  It may be for this reason that slippery brain sometimes brings to mind "frivolous," "doesn't take things seriously," "unfocused," "lack of stick-to-it-iveness," and the like.  Slippery brained people though can, as per the list above, be quite serious, single-minded, and productive, sometimes unusually so.  They don't display the kinds of processes that one usually associated with such outcomes but clearly can, in their own odd way, achieve them.

That the process is mysterious to others, and perhaps even to the possessors of slippery brains, may help to explain why slippery brain is often associated with some degree of self-doubt and of frustration with oneself.  How does one know whether the "jumping around" is a reflection of productive multiple interests as opposed to a fear of failure, or some other reluctance to commit oneself to a task?  Particularly if important people around one give one to believe that there is something wrong with "jumping around" or discourage it in other ways (by ignoring it, by trying to take over particular interests).   Hence the feature or bug question.

For what its worth, more than fifty years of personal experience with slippery brain have persuaded me it is actually a feature rather than a bug,  or at least can be if one can get by the associated tendencies to frustration with and doubt about oneself.  Slippery brain allows one to make connections in ways that are harder or impossible to make without it, and those connections are often, once recognized, quite useful both to oneself and to others.  One needs to be patient with oneself to discover that, not allow either onself or others to judge prematurely how one is doing, or even what one is doing.   If one can do that, one discovers that slippery brain isn't something to be fixed but rather something to be valued. 

After the meeting last night I felt motivated to film more and write down more ideas. I don't know if I feel motivated today, but I don't feel as guilty about it after the discussion :)

I'll be there and I'm bringing my brother just this once. Currently I'm reading:

A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness by V.S. Ramachandran

and

The Science of Happiness by Stephen Braun

both of which are very interesting. See you tonight!

Sign me up.  "Slippery brain" = a brain that is aware that it doesn't always function quite the way one wants it too/expects it too, and has learned/is learning that that is actually a feature rather than a bug. 

Maybe start out with our own stories of discovery, move from that to relevant published stories/explorations of other people?  For when we get to that stage, perhaps Susanne Antonetta's A Mind Apart: Travels in a Neurodiverse World?  Antonetta herself has a bipolar brain and the book is an interesting account of her life with a host of other slippery brains of various kinds.  It was also my first encounter with the notion of "neurodiversity" (in appealing contrast to "neurotypical," a concept developed within the autistic community that seems to me much more generally useful). 

I posted this once, so I'm terribly sorry if Serendip posts it again.

I'd love to join!  Grobstein insinuates that I have a very "story teller dominated" brain, which I don't doubt; I might make an interesting contributor because of it!  In any case, it's all about learning!