In Their Right Minds : The Lives and Shared Practices of Poetic Geniuses.

Cover -- Contents -- Front matter -- Title page -- Publisher information -- Dedication -- Acknowledgments -- Body matter -- Introduction -- Chapter One - Art, Music and Poetry in Atypical Minds -- Chapter Two - Sensing Presences: Poetry, Religion and the Right Hemisphere -- Chapter Three - Emotion, Dissociation and Linguistic Creativity -- Chapter Four - The Medium and the Matrix: Unconscious Information and the Therapeutic Dyad -- Chapter Five - From Myth to Mediumship: John Keats and Victor Hugo -- Chapter Six - Dictating Others and Surrogate Mothers: Rainer Maria Rilke and W.B. Yeats -- Chapter Seven - A 20-Year Ouija Board Odyssey: James Merrill and David Jackson -- Chapter Eight - Right-Hemisphere Imbalance versus Espousal: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes -- Conclusion -- Back matter -- Bibliography -- Also available.

In 1976, Julian Jaynes proposed that the language of poetry and prophecy originated in the right, "god-side" of the brain. Current neuroscientific evidence confirms the role of the right hemisphere in poetry, a sensed presence, and paranormal claims as well as in mental imbalance. Left-hemispheric dominance for language is the norm. An atypically enhanced right hemisphere, whether attained through genetic predisposition, left-hemispheric damage, epilepsy, childhood or later traumas, can create hypersensitivities along with special skills. Dissociative "Others" may arise unbidden or be coaxed out through occult practices. Based on nearly twenty years of scientific and literary research, this book enters the atypical minds of poetic geniuses - Blake, Keats, Hugo, Rilke, Yeats, Merrill, Plath and Hughes - by way of the visible signs in their lives, beliefs, and shared practices.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.