Product Description

The computer-generated information superhighway could launch a new renaissance of creativity for millions of visual thinkers! Some of the greatest minds in politics, science, literature, and the arts experienced undetected learning disabilities that stopped them from assimilating information the same way as their peers. Some of our most original intellects Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Lewis Carroll, and Winston Churchill relied heavily on visual modes of thought, processing information in terms of images instead of words or numbers. In the "Mind's Eye" profiles gifted individuals who used non-traditional methods in their work as it explodes many myths about conventional intelligence and charts new vistas for today's computer visualisation technologies.Thomas G. West examines the learning difficulties experienced by these people and others, and how recent neurological research shows an association between visual talents and verbal difficulties. In the "Mind's Eye" probes new data on dyslexics to see how computers enhance the creative potential of visual thinkers, as well as interactive computer applications to all levels of education and work. Updated with a new preface, epilogue, and expanded notes, this volume could be the clarion call for educators and corporations to mine this untapped resource of highly creative talent in our midst.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #133325 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 397 pages

From the Author
Technological changes favor visual thinkers
"It is possible . . . that conditions are reversing themselves in a way that is especially favorable to some who are strong visual thinkers but who may have had serious difficulties in conventional academic settings. . . . Different kinds of problems and different kinds of tools may require different talents and favor different kinds of brains." --Thomas G. West, from the preface to the first edition of In the Mind's Eye, 1991. From the cover of the updated edition of In the Mind's Eye: "Every once in a while a book comes along that turns one's thinking upside down. In the Mind's Eye is such a book." --Roeper Review. "Thomas West brings to life the fascinating capacities and syndromes that arise from our visual-spatial imagination. His book proves beyond doubt that we are not all points on a single bell curve of intelligence." --Howard Gardner, Ph.D., Author of Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. "Thomas West . . . claims that visualization is not only a legitimate way to solve problems, it is a superior way; the best minds have used it. West urges us to join the dyslexics of the world and use pictures instead of words. In the process we get fascinating glimpses of how other minds have worked--minds that have changed the world." --Alvy Ray Smith, Ph.D., Graphics Fellow, Advanced Technology, Microsoft Corporation. From the frontispiece of the updated edition of In the Mind's Eye: "Faraday, in his mind's eye, saw lines of force traversing all space where the mathematicians saw centres of force attracting at a distance: Faraday saw a medium where they saw nothing but distance: Faraday sought the seat of the phenomena in real actions going on in the medium, they were satisfied that they had found it in a power of action at a distance impressed on the electric fluids." --James Clerk Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism.

Customer Reviews

Absoltely amazing - Who would have thought it!!!
I found this book at Amazon after trying local book shops for weeks, it arived within 3 days. I could not put it down. Being Dyslexic it took me a while to read but I belive every Dyslexic should read this book as soon as they are able to. Thomas G. West was in my mind, he explained things to me better than I could explain to myself.

If you want to understand the Dyslexic mind read this, IT IS WELL WORTH TEN TIMES THE PRICE.

West clarifies strengths of the attention deficit disordered
West describes the subjects of this book as dyslexic. I have developed a special interest in treating adolescents and adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD) and have never read a clearer or more helpful explanation of how differently the ADD person thinks and processes information from the rest of us (the "Earth People", one of my patients calls the non-ADD persons, since he spent all his undiagnosed life feeling as if he were from another planet). So I chose to read ADD wherever West writes "dyslexia". Be that as it may, and whatever the terminology, it is enormously supportive and helpful to my ADD patients when I explain their observations of their differences in West's terms. There is a poster in my waiting room showing a picture of Einstein, with a reference to how poorly he did in elementary school and the caption: "They said he was a nice enough kid, but no rocket scientist..." West discusses Einstein, and Faraday, and Maxwell, and how they thought differently; what a useful way to understand that not all differences from the norm are inferiorities. For the kid or adult who wonders if she is stupid but is certain she doesn't learn the same way as most of those around her; for the parent who is searching for some way to validate an unhappy child; for the teacher who is struggling to understand the pupil who seems to have brilliant flashes interspersed with an almost stuporous inattention and a talent for intrusion and non sequitors; for the mental health worker who is searching for a model with which to understand these most enigmatic clients; for the skills coach who KNOWS these kids and adults are NOT "lazy, stupid, or crazy", and needs some way of showing this to them... for all these sojourners with the ADD person, this book is enormously helpful and stimulating. I use material from it every day, gratefully.

The text upon which all dyslexia texts must be judged
To describe Thomas West work as being superb would, in my opinion, to do it and him, a profound disservice for it is far far more than that. This book is, by all accounts the one book I have been searching for all my adult life in a desperate effort to explain to anyone would would care to listen, the exact nature of my learning dissability, why my though processes were different to theirs, how this presented difficulties for me and how I had come to believe it to be a gift rather than a hinderance. The topics West tackles in his book are hugely complex and if one studies the literature, almost completely incomprehensible for the lay person - all of which serves to compound and exascerbate the level of misunderstanding and predjudice that exists amongst the general public as regards the existence of dyslexia. West on the other hand, expounds the subject in totally absorbing detail. Yes it's true that I am a dyslexuic and so that does to a certain extent predispose me to being a fan of his but I genuinely beleive that there does not exists a finer and more authoritative text on dyslexia to be found anywhere else. With this in mind, I am convinced that non-dyslexics will find this book just as fascinating and absorbing as non-dyslexics will. For the parents of dyslexic children, this text should be regarded as compulsory reading for not only will it serve to enlighten parents as to the nature of the difficulties their child faces, but it will provide hope for them too.

This is an excellent book and I have no hestitation in awarding it the highest possible score available.