Posted by IsoM on January 16, 2002, at 16:54:30
In reply to Re: Lou, C'mon Over To PB Social With Us! » Lou Pilder, posted by Lou Pilder on January 16, 2002, at 15:28:51
Lou, don't discount PB Social as unimportant. It's just Dr. Bob uses these forums for research too & to make it orderly, this forum's supposed to be the treatment of psych problems with medications & PB Social is about other strategies for psych problems, including the social support side. Even if we continue here, Dr. Bob himself will redirect this thread over.
Lou, you never answered my question on whether your mental music ceases if you do math calculations in your head, or more difficult calculations on paper. I'm curious.
Quite a few years ago, I read The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Dr. Oliver Sacks. It was case studies of people's perceptions & experiences of the world who had neurological disorders from a myriad of reasons.
In the case of the man in the book's title, he had a tumour that was inoperable & as it progressed his behaviour changed due to his altered visual perception of the world. When he was shown a florist's rose & asked to describe it, he used terms like long, thin green linear object with a larger red convoluted, multifolded end. When he was asked what it was, he didn't know. The doctor asked him to hold the red end to his nose & sniff. When he did so, the man replied in surprise "why, it's a rose!"
As his condition progressed, he was only able to do things if his wife laid everything out in a row (like dressing himself or eating) & he moved from one thing to the next. What was interesting was he was only able to do this while singing or humming to himself through the process. If someone interrupted him in his humming, he was lost. He had no idea what he was doing or where to pick up.
I recalled his story when I noticed about a year ago that when I'm working at a task that doesn't take a great deal of mental concentration, that I hum or sing to myself the whole time (unless I'm depressed). It keeps me focused on my task & I can do it in an orderly fashion without forgetting anyhting in the train of work. Some days, the same melody will be hummed by me over & over for literally hours at a time. If some one comes along & I need to deal with them, I do but when they leave I turn back to my task & humming. I used to do it unaware of it until someone brought it to my attention.
Don't forget to answer about mental music & do math in your head. :)
> Babble people: We must stay on yje main board for we are breaking new horizons and we will reach the answers to the mysteries of babbledom. We will uncover the cloak of the mishagosh that inflicts us. Wait I say, wait.
> Lou
poster:IsoM
thread:90171
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020116/msgs/90508.html