The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain
Flaherty, Alice
Genre: Treatise
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Annotated by:
- Willms, Janice
- Date of entry: May-27-2004
Summary
Dr. Flaherty, a practicing neurologist, sets out to explore the act of writing and, more broadly, creativity, in the context of both neuroscience and emotion. She begins by describing several brain conditions that seem to enhance the need to write, even to the extent of obsessive hypergraphia. Next she turns to the opposite state, writer's block, looking at both psychological and neuroscientific perspectives.
Using some of the recent studies of the relationships between certain brain centers and language related phenomena, Flaherty further clarifies some of the cognitive bases for creating literature. Finally, the study turns specifically to the temporal lobe as the possible organic site of the perceived voice of the muse in religious and creative inspiration.
Miscellaneous
Publisher
Houghton Mifflin
Place Published
Boston
Edition
2004
Page Count
307
Commentary