Customer Reviews

The Left-Hander Syndrome: The Causes and Consequences of Left-Handedness

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Well well, there is some very interesting stuff here. Why are only around 10% of the population left handed? Is this genetic or learned? And what does this mean for tool making, writing, driving, accident proneness, societal prejudice, sporting pursuits, and general living as a left hander? You might also be interested to know that around 20% of people are left footed, and around 40% of people are left eyed. Also more woman are right handed than men. And then there are the mixed types, the ambidextorous, and also those who mix different activities and their handedness- say writing and throwing. A surpising number of people are actually mixed types, and this increases for footedness and eyedness.

This book is a good overview of various statistics, and what it means to live as a left hander in a right handed world. The author has conducted many years research into various studies, from identical twin studies, to family studies, to genes and learning, to the way tools are designed, and how left handers cope with these sorts of things in general. Bias, prejudice, and general policies are discussed, both historically and in recent times. (Everyone knows the old rap over the knuckle for left handed school students several generations ago, but where have we come from there?).

The author mentions his university in the 1990s where all the chairs in his lecture theatre have right-sided writing areas. (Being left handed in writing, I also remember having to cope with this at university. I also remember smudging most of my first ink pen writing in primary school-left handed writers will know what I am talking about!).

One of the best things about this book is the detail. Not only is there analyses of handedness, but as mentioned, footedness, eyeness, and even earness. Which ear do you listen to your watch with? Also, mixed handed types are discussed, along with various sports, and degree of lefthandness (and right handedness!) in each, and where it may be useful to be more of a mixed type for some sports (eg soccer with mixed footedness, and basketball with mixed handedness). Readers are given personal questionaires to determine their general level of left or right handedness, footedness, earness, and eyeness. Links with brain states and brain areas, personality types, tendancy to certain careers and so on is also discussed. Famous lefties are also listed.

The book is a must for the curious leftie, and for those who are interested in where this curious, and rather little studied aspect of humanity is taking us.

I learned a great deal about myself reading this book and I think even came away with higher self esteem. The author is a leading scientist studying left-handedness and explains why media and "common knowledge" information and facts on the subject are often incorrect. The writing style is factual and informative but also entertaining. You learn about the problems of left-handed presidents as well as your own or a friend's problems and why there are fewer left-handed older people than younger ones. I'm very grateful to the author for explaining to me why I had so much trouble in dancing class as a teenager; I found his answer to that puzzle much more help than all the dermatologists my mother took me to for my acne. I wish I could have read this book earlier in my life.

This book doesn't tell left-handers how best to live in a right-handers' world, but it doesn't purport to. It does, however, live up to its title. Coren presents a range of very interesting theories and conclusions about left-handedness. Crucially, he also describes the actual studies and presents their results, and is fairly clear about when something's just a theory and why one might believe it, so you get to see some raw facts and judge for yourself. I'm strongly left-handed and am not in the least bit offended by the idea that it could have possibly been caused by something going slightly wrong somewhere. Some of the theories did actually explain a few things about my family and myself quite well, which was an added bonus.

My prime regret about this book is that it took me the better part of a decade to get to it. While I'm not left handed I've always been facinated by the topic. This book and the studies it covers sure blew away a lot of my pretense of knowledge about the subject and a lot of old wives tales to boot. Happily I'm not alone in my chagrin. Coren's investigation blew away a lot of his smug preconceptions too. Coren could of kept that to himself but he is honest enough to show himself bungling around in the dark like most of us do so much of the time.

The book is part survey of left-handedness through the ages and part the adventure of bringing arcane disciplines of science to bear on problem. The author gets across the feelings of frustration and confusion when the results of careful research produce enigmatic and elusive results.

The final part of the book is primer in understanding left handers and the burdens under which they gamely labor. And fianally it is a plea for ways in which we could make left handers lives,if not perfect,at least a little easier.

Coren write with an ease, humor and heart that belies his intelligence and expertise.

The word "syndrome" in the title of this book should serve to red-flag contents. Because the author views left handedness as a "pathological" aberration from the norm, his approach is to analyze it accordingly, which he does with painstaking attention to the science and statistics of neuropsychology. Much of what he presents as fact is interesting, and may be correct. The connection with birth trauma is particularly valuable. Coren does not, however, devote much time to addressing the opposite phenomenom, that of the gifted left-hander. My concern with this unbalanced approach is that it creates the impression that most, if not all, lefties are somehow seriously hampered in their abilities to lead "normal" lives. In truth, southpaws are disproportionately represented among athletes, artists, and intellectuals. Regarding life span, a study conducted in 1993 by the National Institutes of Health and Harvard University found no significant difference among death rates for right or left hand dominance.

All human characteristics have their good and bad features, so why should left-handedness be any different? Just something to keep in mind....

This is very well researched and logically presented. From the point of view of this left hander, the findings were a bit depressing. Evidently the author has found that left handed people are left handed because of some complication in development or damage of some sort. I think that the idea that left handers are more accident prone could be highly discounted because we have to live in a right handed world. Many times researchers (logical types) live in a cave. They seem to isolate data and neglect to see the whole picure (global thinking).

It may be enlightening to ivestigate the school system (he did) from the point of view of how difficult it is for global types to learn in a logical only environment. I am completely left and have always been different from my siblings in my way of looking at everything. But I think of it as an advantage. This book is for right handed logical types who have siblings like me who probably need amunition to feel better about themselves. I was not pleased with all the negative information. There must be something good about left handers Mr. Cohen.

I think left handed people are special in their ability to think differently from the logical types. I have a sister who is extremely logical and misses much of what is going on. I'm almost psychic and I think it's because I'm more global in my thinking (right brained). It would be nice if thinking abilities and artistic abilities and the impact of those qualities on society could be investigated.

My mother is 82 and she was left handed until she was forced to be right handed in school. So much for dying young though. However, she was born premature. She is one of the most intelligent and successful, creative people that I know..

Positive thinking may be a right brained quality.....

This is a great book! I read it many years ago when it first was released and I checked it out from the library. Now I'm buying my own copy. The author strives to prove that left-handedness is largely a concequence of brain trauma either during pregnancy early, or during birth that causes some level of brain damange. When I first read this, I was all offended thinking that I wasn't brain damanged! But after reading the book, his theories (which he has backed up with his own and other's research) make a lot of sense. If you are interested in this subject at all, this is a great book to read!

As a left-handed woman, and doing research on handedness and brain laterality for a master's thesis; I found Coren's work to bias, and much of his research limiting. But I also found McManus to be just as limiting and bias also, maybe it's time for left-handers to start looking at those who really researched handedness, ie. Gardner's The Ambidextrous Universe, and Annette's Left, Right Hand and Brain: The Right Shift Theory.

People reading this book should know that Coren's theorys are not completely accepted. Other good scientists believe that left-handedness could be gentic. Other scientists believe other things and each have done tests to back up their beliefs. Coren has proved his theory, but others have proved otherwise. While it is an interesting book, if one is interested in such things, it was written over 7 years ago, and some of the information is no doubt no outdated. Try it, but don't take the information as truth without considering other possibilities.

This is an insightful book that more than adequately covers the psycho-social, medical, and ergonomic aspects of left handedness. I have never found so much information on this subject under one title: the author has obviously spent his life's work in dealing with this subject. As a left hander, I actually found some of the epidemiological information to be quite startling. What is equally as startling is how I can relate to much of what this book presents. This is a must-read for all left-handers as well as for anybody who is interested in this subject matter.