Rhetorical Analysis Of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor gave a moving lecture on how she became who she is. To introduce herself, Jill informed the audience about her life choice of becoming a neuroanatomist, who studies the brain for the reason inspired by her brother’s diagnosis of Schizophrenia. Working as a supporter for the National Alliance for Mental Illness alongside her scientific career, she researched about severe mental illness, which led her to many questions, mainly asking, “how do different brains works for different individuals with different conditions?”. Jill then had the chance to answer this question on her own. She was struck by her own brain disorder, hemorrhage, which occurs when a blood vessel is discharged, and in her case, it was an explosion in her

left hemisphere of her brain. Alongside her speech informing the audience of her brain disorder, she brought in a real human brain to present and aid her in explaining about how the human brain works. The human brain consists of many components, though Jill focused on the two hemispheres, the right and left hemisphere, which has different functions and personalities. Going back to her brain disorder, Jill then found out that she got a stroke and included that her stroke gave her a pounding pain that occur in segments, her hands limited ability to move, her headache which changes her perspective on the way she sees things. Jill’s left hemisphere continuously turned on and off, which allowed her to focus on this energy around her. When the hemisphere is on, she realizes important things occurring around her in that present moment, attempting to help her get to where she needs, whereas when it was off, she is sent off to her “La La Land” where everything was beautiful , where she felt “expansive”, powerful and confident. As she goes on, her left hemisphere, then informed her of her present and occurring stroke, as well as the fact that she needs help. Jill finally was brought into the hospital, where she felt as if she was in nirvana, in paradise, in heaven, which caused her to realize all the beautiful things that different individuals could experience if they come to their own nirvana. In her final words, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor informed us of who we are, what we are capable of, and what we are in this world. She explained that our brain affects us in every way possible and we choose what we want to be, and by choosing, that will improve our lives as well as others living on this planet.

Textual Connections

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor frequently mentioned of the left and right hemisphere. From the psychology textbook, chapter mentioned lots of these hemispheres. The cerebral cortex consists of the left and right hemisphere, which as mentioned in the textbook is connected by corpus callosum, which allows for the hemispheres to communicate with each other. As mentioned in the textbook, the left hemisphere function in speech comprehension, speech production, phonology, syntax, reading, and writing. The right hemisphere function in simple speech, simple writing, tone of voice, perceptual grouping, and face perception. In the TED Talk, Jill explained how the left hemisphere thinks linearly and methodically, which means the left hemisphere thinks very into detail of the main information collected, then goes into more details of those details. The right hemisphere focuses on the present moment and the things that are happening in those moments. In this case, Jill’s definition of the left hemisphere is similar to the one from the textbook, however, her right hemisphere definition and the textbook definition are completely different. However, by having two definitions and inputs of the right and left hemisphere would improve our knowledge of the hemispheres.

Another connection is where Jill mentioned at the end of her lecture how we should choose our own actions, which then we can project more peace into the world. She expressed how we need to choose to step to the right of our left hemisphere, meaning the more time we spend on choosing what we can and want to be in this world, we could improve our lives. In chapter 3, the textbook mentioned of the prefrontal cortex. This assists to how we think. The prefrontal cortex specializes in personality, behaviour and contributes highly to what we do. Jill’s idea of stepping into our right hemisphere indicates what we do could help humanity. If we feed our prefrontal cortex with a consistent pattern of the present mind, we could help spread the positive energy that we built.

Personal Connection

Dr.

Jill Bolte Taylor’s speech about our brain and how it works moved me in the middle of her speech as well as the last paragraphs. When she talked about her stroke, I was very intrigued of the things she experienced while the stroke is happening. One of the things she mentioned was that she could not interpret what her colleague is saying during the phone, while realizing all the things thats happening to her. The fact that Jill was able to comprehend the situation, and inform the audience of what her hemispheres are saying is incredible. I want to personally experience this kind of feeling, not indicating that I want to have a stroke. Another thing Jill mentioned that amazed me was how she found her nirvana. Nirvana, meaning paradise, or heaven, is extremely hard for some people to find. When Jill found hers, it gave her this positive energy mindset that I would like to also possess. The thought of making a better world is extremely insipiring, towards any individual. To be able to inspire others by revealing this energy in and around her that could potentially help to see the beauty in providing more peace is amazing. All in all, Jill completely inspired me to move into the right hemisphere and think of the present moment, as well as the changes I can make to improve my everyday

life.