The brain processes everything internal and external. It uses all senses and requires conscious effort to not only interpret one’s reality, but to memorize it. However, when the brain encounters a foreign circumstance, especially if it is physiological or psychologically traumatic, it adapts and constructs a new way to perceive the world and environment. In the physiological aspect, individuals who are blind adapt to “seeing” the world around them with the remaining senses. Oliver Sacks elaborates upon this in his essay, The Mind’s Eye: What the Blind See, in which he explains how blind people utilize their senses to create a new reality and alter their perceptions. Martha Stout addresses the psychological portion in her essay, When I Woke
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It is when the brain or body experiences a distressing event that can be permanent. The aftermath of this experience leads the brain to mechanize a way to adapt and create a response for future trauma, that may or may not be happening. Stout, a psychologist, encounters patients who have suffered some form of psychological trauma on a daily basis. One of her most notable patients is Julia, a woman who suffered from child abuse and did not realize it. Her brain had subjected itself to forgetting most of her childhood and “leaving” her body when an external factor triggered her. She had “developed the reaction of standing apart from herself and her situation...She could run and hide. She could cover her injuries...But the part of her consciousness that she thinks of as herself was not there; it was split off...therefore in some sense protected” (Stout 664). What Stout describes is disassociation, a way the brain separates the conscious and subconscious. Julia’s brain had created a defense mechanism to protect her conscious self from the abuse and facilitate her order of life. Adaption is how the brain maintains control and can protect itself from the environment. Disassociation was the means to how Julia maintained control and made order out of chaos. External and internal factors vary, but physical trauma also prompts the brain to adapt and maintain control. Sacks addresses how a physiological factor can cause the brain to adapt and …show more content…
By adapting to all sorts of circumstances, a perception is created and used to adapt to future situations, such as trauma. In the essays, The Mind’s Eye: What the Blind See and When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday, Oliver Sacks and Martha Stout address the concepts of adaptation and perception. They demonstrate the correlation between how adaptation helps mold one’s perception. Stout regards the psychological aspect while Sacks does the physiological. This relationship demonstrates how the mind and body are connected, and by being self-aware and using all senses, one can have a reality that sees all and is consciously
It is when the brain or body experiences a distressing event that can be permanent. The aftermath of this experience leads the brain to mechanize a way to adapt and create a response for future trauma, that may or may not be happening. Stout, a psychologist, encounters patients who have suffered some form of psychological trauma on a daily basis. One of her most notable patients is Julia, a woman who suffered from child abuse and did not realize it. Her brain had subjected itself to forgetting most of her childhood and “leaving” her body when an external factor triggered her. She had “developed the reaction of standing apart from herself and her situation...She could run and hide. She could cover her injuries...But the part of her consciousness that she thinks of as herself was not there; it was split off...therefore in some sense protected” (Stout 664). What Stout describes is disassociation, a way the brain separates the conscious and subconscious. Julia’s brain had created a defense mechanism to protect her conscious self from the abuse and facilitate her order of life. Adaption is how the brain maintains control and can protect itself from the environment. Disassociation was the means to how Julia maintained control and made order out of chaos. External and internal factors vary, but physical trauma also prompts the brain to adapt and maintain control. Sacks addresses how a physiological factor can cause the brain to adapt and …show more content…
By adapting to all sorts of circumstances, a perception is created and used to adapt to future situations, such as trauma. In the essays, The Mind’s Eye: What the Blind See and When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday, Oliver Sacks and Martha Stout address the concepts of adaptation and perception. They demonstrate the correlation between how adaptation helps mold one’s perception. Stout regards the psychological aspect while Sacks does the physiological. This relationship demonstrates how the mind and body are connected, and by being self-aware and using all senses, one can have a reality that sees all and is consciously