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

Brief Description: 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."Review Quotes:"Childhood trauma, paranormal experiences, and the drive to write verse: why do these three things cluster together in the biographies of so many great poets? Drawing upon recent neuroscientific research plus anecdotal evidence from the lives of Yeats, Hugo, Merrill, Plath, Hughes, and others, Carole Brooks Platt argues convincingly for a link to the brain's right hemisphere. In an era of overspecialization, Platt is a rarity: a brilliant generalist, able to see patterns connecting topics as diverse as shamanism, seances, and psychotherapy. One of the poets under study here, Keats, famously compared the act of reading Chapman s Homer to discovering a new planet, and I think the same can be said of reading Platt. She leaves us open-mouthed with wonder in a world we thought we knew."--Julie Kane, PhD, Professor of English at Northwestern State University; former Fulbright Scholar and Louisiana Poet Laureate"Review Quotes:"Carole Brooks Platt's creative synthesis of neuroscience and the humanities offers fascinating brain/mind explorations of a number of poetic geniuses. This groundbreaking interdisciplinary work heralds a paradigm shift in literary analysis."--Allan N. Schore, PhD, University of California at Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine

Contributor Bio:  Brooks Platt, Carole Carole Brooks Platt is a linguist, literary scholar, and consciousness researcher. She was born in Philadelphia, PA, and has degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (A. B.), the Sorbonne (diplome annuel), Georgetown University (M. S.), and Rice University (PhD). Contributor Bio:  Platt, Carole Brooks Carole Brooks Platt is a linguist, literary scholar, and consciousness researcher. She was born in Philadelphia, PA, and has degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (A. B.), the Sorbonne (diplome annuel), Georgetown University (M. S.), and Rice University (PhD). Her blog can be found at http: //rightmindmatters.blogspot.com/2011/07/once-in-frightening-dream-patient-on.html