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The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain
by Alice W Flaherty

The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain Cover

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

What underlies the human ability, desire, and even compulsion to write? Alice Flaherty explores the manic state resulting in an overwhelming desire to write — called hypergraphia — and the science behind its antithesis, writer's block.

As a leading neurologist at a major research hospital, Flaherty writes from the frontlines of brain research. Her voice, driven and surprisingly original, has its roots in her own harrowing experience with hypergraphia, an aspect of postpartum bipolar mood disorder. Both qualifications lend power to Flaherty's riveting connection, among many others, between the biology of pain and the human drive to communicate. Her lifelong passion for literature underpins her argument for the importance of emotion in writing, the relationship between depression and writing, and the effects on the body of being visited by the Muse. Her understanding of the role of the brain's temporal lobes and limbic system in the drive to write will challenge the popular idea that creativity emerges from the right side of the brain. Finally, The Midnight Disease casts light on the methods and madness of writers past and present, from Dostoyevsky to Conrad to Sylvia Plath to Stephen King. It is a landmark contribution to our understanding of why we are wired — and some of us are truly compelled — to write.

Book News Annotation:

Neurologist Flaherty (Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School) explains the psychological and neuroscientific knowledge about the process of writing for a lay audience. She discusses the temporal lobe's role in "abnormal hypergraphia," an increased desire to write. She then explores psychological and neurological explanations for writer's block. The roles of the cerebral cortex in writing ability, the limbic system in the drive to communication, and the temporal lob in metaphorical thinking are examined in subsequent chapters.
Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Review:

"[Flaherty] is the real thing...and her writing magically transforms her own tragedies into something strange and whimsical almost, almost funny." The Washington Post Book World

Review:

"This is interesting, heated stuff." The San Francisco Chronicle

Review:

"What's moving about this book is how deeply unresolved, in an age of mood pills and weblogs, that old schism remains. Writers will delight in the way information and lore are interspersed." Publishers Weekly

Review:

"The Midnight Disease remains a signal achievement, providing remarkable dividends for readers interested in the human brain and artistic creativity." Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Synopsis:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [267]-283) and index.
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About the Author

Alice Weaver Flaherty is a young doctor, a neurologist, who has gone from a summa cum laude degree at Harvard, to a PhD from MIT, to an MD from Harvard Medical School, to a position as chief resident in neurology (in her early thirties) at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she is now staff neurologist and "where I surreptitiously do a lot of writing." She sees patients regularly, specializes in the innovative technique of deep brain stimulators, and is the author of a number of scientific papers on the brain's representation of the body. She lives with her husband and twin daughters in Cambridge, Mass.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Megan Renehan, January 28, 2007 (view all comments by Megan Renehan)
The Midnight Disease is a fascinating look at the biological mechanics of writing. Though it is quite technical, it brings neuroscience down to an understandable level without losing any meaning. This book will cause any writer to take a second look at his/her habits and motivations, and it offers remarkable insights on why and how we write.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780618230655
Subtitle:
The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain
Author:
Flaherty, Alice W
Author:
Flaherty, Alice W.
Author:
Flaherty, Alice Weaver
Publisher:
Houghton Mifflin Company
Location:
Boston
Subject:
Women
Subject:
Writing Skills
Subject:
Rhetoric
Subject:
Authorship
Subject:
Neuropsychology
Subject:
Authors
Subject:
Creation
Subject:
Creation (literary, artistic, etc.)
Subject:
Writer's block.
Subject:
Composition & Creative Writing - General
Copyright:
2004
Edition Description:
HARDCOVER
Series Volume:
62
Publication Date:
January 2004
Binding:
Hardcover
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
307
Dimensions:
828x580x103 105
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