Posted by Quintal on October 6, 2007, at 22:29:36 [reposted on October 7, 2007, at 9:16:21 | original URL]
In reply to Re: Left, Right and Centre? » Quintal, posted by cactus on October 6, 2007, at 21:27:41
I did the same thing, and was told off very harshly *LEFT!!!*, and that look they give you... I've felt that way most of my life. But I'm not stupid, so why do I that? I have to stop and think about it, rationally, logically, so this is my left hand, so that is on the left and that thing over there must be on my left because it's on the same side. I don't know it intuitively. That's strange, because I'm a very intuitive person.
I remember a book I read about this a while ago "Right Hand, Left Hand". All about symmetry and asymmetry. I've nearly forgotten all of it, but there are some interesting reviews: "On A rather deep review of the left-handedness of amino acids and why genes might make us more "left" than right" are offset by two frivilous and fun chapters about left-handed facts and figures such as Da Vinci's mirror-writing and the left-handedness of Muppets."
I'm starting to wonder if I could be a converted left-hander. It seems a bit of a stretch though. One clue is that my mother always claimed to be ambidextrous. My mother's claims are best treated with a pinch of salt, so from reading the literature it seems much more likely that she was a converted left-hander, since true ambidexterity is very rare, but left-handers often learn to use their right hand. Another clue is that I hold my pen in a really weird way!!! People laughed at me struggling away there at school, can't even hold a pen right. The more I think about it, the more it seems as though I was holding it with my non-dominant hand. I hold my pen in the right hand in the same way as you'd expect a right-hander to hold a pen with their left hand - they'd struggle, and even if they'd come to depend on it, it might still look awkward. I once saw (co-incidentally) my GP holding her pen the same way, and I had to check myself from pointing it out to her. I thought OMG, that's what I do! Why are you struggling like that?!?!
Surely if I was left-handed I'd have some memory of it? I do use my left hand - for doing things on the left side of my body, and sometimes on the right too, if it's easier for my left hand to reach it, but it's definitely not dominant now.
Another possible 'clue' is that my mother seemed to be hypervigilant for inherent defects. I know that might sound odd, and it is odd, but there may be an explanation for it. She scrutinized my friend so closely that she noticed a 'lazy eye' developing, even before her mother did. My friend was promptly shipped off to the doctor and the lazy eye was retrained, and mother was highly praised for her vigilance. I wonder why she scrutinized people so closely for flaws? Maybe there was some 'defect' in herself that she felt had to corrected? I imagine if that was so, she'd be very alert to the possibility of that defect appearing in her offspring. If it did appear, knowing my mother she would set her considerable willpower to the purpose of controlling and containing it. She did this with my fallen arches too. Now, even as an adult I can stand on my tippee-toes like a ballerina, such was her proficiency in 'motivating me' to do my daily exercises. I don't remember being flat-footed either, but I definitely was. Also, I remember little of the exercises, but their effect still remains.
Another red herring is that converted left-handers are more likely to use both hemispheres of the brain in almost equal amounts, and most tests do indeed show that I use both my hemispheres very close to 50/50, with a slight dominance to the right.
This article has some interesting info on the incidence of mental disturbance among converted left-handers. Apparently it's very common:
__________________________________________________Consequences of Converting Handedness. The handedness of a human being is an expression of an inborn, innate lateralization of the cerebral hemispheres where one side dominates. In the neural system, the tracts are "crossed". Thus, a dominant right cerebral hemisphere results in a dominant left hand and a dominance of the left cerebral hemisphere is responsible for right-handedness [18].
Converting handedness, whether it be from a dominant left hand to a non-dominant right or the reverse, (especially during writing) does not result in a change in cerebral dominance but rather a multifaceted cerebral disturbance or damage. This functional cerebral damage (dysfunction, blockage, and inhibition of brain functioning) can then be manifest in the following primary disorders: disturbances in memory for all three areas of information processing (encoding, storage, and recall); difficulty in concentration (early fatigue); difficulty in reading and spelling (legasthenic problems); spatial disorientation (e.g. confusion of left and right); speech problems ranging from stammering to stuttering; fine motor disturbances evident in writing and other activities requiring precision.
The primary consequences can then go on and transform into secondary consequences: feelings of inferiority; shyness; introversion; overcompensation; defiance to belligerence; braggadocio; provocative behavior; bed-wetting; nail-biting; emotional problems that can last into adulthood with neurotic and/or psychosomatic symptomology; and personality disturbances [ 3,4,7,8,9,11,14] .
Cerebral disturbances. The search for the second factor began with the search for the commonalities in the medical histories of the persons in the small heterogeneous "intermediary group". Very quickly, problems during pregnancy and birth, as well as difficulties in early childhood were found. In addition, symptoms were found that are often subsumed today under the following terms: MCD - Minimal Cerebral Dysfunction; POS - early childhood Psycho-Organic Syndrome, the foremost term used in Switzerland today; early childhood brain damage; and early childhood exogenous psychological syndrome. (Many of these disturbances are listed in the catalogue, International Classification of Diseases [ 5] . See Chapter V "Diseases in Childhood and Youth"). In children it has been observed that frequently partial disturbances in performance are related to perinatal brain damage (from the sixth month of pregnancy to the end of the first year) and a temporary interruption of the oxygen supply to the brain [ 1] .
These cerebral disorders are in part very similar and are, in fact, often identical to the consequences of converting handedness. Without the necessary knowledge, it is almost impossible to distinguish one from another. The problematic lies in the differential diagnostic method.
http://www.linkshaender-beratung.de/english/Ambidextrous.htm
__________________________________________________I'm finding this all very interesting, but it's not enough to convince me. There is probably something else I'm missing. There are a few questions I need to ask my dad tomorrow anyway.
Q
P.S. Can you read upside down writing almost as easily as the 'right' way up?
poster:Quintal
thread:787501
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20070925/msgs/787508.html