Descartes: body-mind problem

In the 17th Century Rene Descartes argued that humans had minds and bodies and non-human animals had only bodies. He did this to define the difference between human and non-human animals, One consequence has been to create a number of mind-body problems. One obvious problem then becomes how the body and the mind relate to each other. Many now realize that this dichotomy to be simply wrong headed.

The writing and the adept hand

Let's start by defining our terms.

The writing hand is easily observed: simply note which hand holds the pen when writing.

The wright or adept hand is not so easily observed. One reason is that a life time's practice even with the non-adept hand can achieve 'perfect performance. Two examples, Rapha Nadel and Nicola Benedetti

The wright (or adept) hand is the hand better able to perform novel complex manipulo-spatial tasks with seemingly effortless ease.

A perhaps more useful way of describing the hands is that one hand is the holding hand and the other the manipulating hand. An example would be taking the lid off a capped bottle,

However to focus on only the hands is to miss the much bigger biologic picture.  The bigger biologic picture is that the right cerebral hemisphere is as one with the left side of the body and the left cerebral hemisphere as one with the right side.

Thus, in the same way that there's a holding and a manipulating hand there is, in the case of right (adept) handers, a left holding balance foot and a right manipulating kicking (accurately) foot.

In re-framing this intrinsic feature as biologic, rather than handedness enables us to establish a toddler's biologic well before the mastery of writing. Simply watch the toddler climbing stairs, noticing which is the leading and which the catch-up leg. It will be the same leading and catch-up leg when they later attempt to descend the stairs. Another opportunity is to note which is the holding hand when spinning round an upright pole (in the garden). Does the toddler spin clockwise - holding with the right hand or anti-clockwise - holding with the left hand?

Three points need emphasizing.

• The first is that the issue is not whether one is right or left handed and therefore writes with the right or left hand. Nor is it about measuring one's degree of handedness as with the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. An aside, I was a Ph.D. student in Prof Oldfield's MRC Speech and Communication Unit in Edinburgh. Prof Oldfield created this tool.
• The second concerns the confounding factor of one's sense of self-efficacy, self-image and self-identity as being right handed. The label hand preference is more appropriate here.
• The third is the confounding effects of practice, which  renders unreliable such 'tests' of handedness as catching an unexpectedly thrown ball to someone to see which hand they (automatically) catch it with.

 

Hidden in plain sight: who can spot the root  mind-body-mismatch?

There is a double problem here: a root and a meta problem. The root problem is noting the fact that someone isn't writing with their adept hand. The second, and more difficult problem is that the 'well-being' agencies do not acknowledge its implications and consequences asa co-factor in a variety of neurodivergent / well being conditions.

In principle, anyone can spot it!

Anyone who knows what to look for is capable of spotting the root problem.  Regrettably few do!

• Typically, psychologists and psychiatrists of various specialisms pre-occupy themselves (and lawyers)  with labelling the surface problem and debating the range of symptoms covered by the label. One aspect of this existential Angst concerns the issue of co-morbidity e.g. people diagnosed as ADHD and awaiting a diagnosis of autism.
• This is not the case in Germany. Dr Johanna Barbara Sattler, a psychologist / psychotherapist had been the founding director of the first German advice centre for left-handers and converted left-handers.. Her handbook is now in its 16th edition and influences how left-handedness is treated in curricula in Bavaria and other German states
• The root problem exists in plain sight, yet is hidden from view. How can this be? It is hidden for two principal reasons: first, many if not most cultures are constituted in terms of the hegemony of the right. Therefore anything which is not right is wrong. Second the focus has been on the surface presenting problem and what to label it aka diagnosis. The diagnostic mistake is failing to accept that labelling is not explaining in the scientific sense.<L/li>
• Perhaps a third reason for failing to spot what is hidden in plain sight is that spotting the mis-match  involves noting two apparently unrelated facts: observing which is the writing hand and which the adept hand then judging whether they are the same hand or not

.

Often it’s possible to spot the condition solely by watching closely the dynamics of the writing hand, arm and head posture. Donald Trump is a prime example here.