Metaphoric Mind: A Celebration of Creative Consciousness [Paperback]

Bob Samples (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1993

This landmark book inspires us with new ways to think about and develop our capacity as learners and educators. The rational/technological/scientific way of doing things has scored one success after another, but often ignoring those other aspects of life and mind that make us truly human. The Metaphoric Mind presents a process for a balanced way of thinking and being in a culture that stands on the knife-edge between catastrophe and transformation. The author draws examples and evidence from anthropology, biology, brain physiology, psychology and from his own pioneering work in teaching creativity to write passionately about the rollicking, intuitive, creative part of ourselves that we have lost and, most importantly, how to regain it. Ultimately a positive vision of the future and how you can fit into it. Adults.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Jalmar Press; 2 Sub edition (August 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0915190680
• ISBN-13: 978-0915190683
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,232,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Logic and rationality are only one half of the picture, February 18, 2000

By 

kalphos "kalphos" (Piscataway, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Metaphoric Mind: A Celebration of Creative Consciousness (Paperback)

The author introduces and explores the concept of "the Metaphoric Mind." He admittedly does not originate much of the thought in this book, but rather collects it from a variety of sources and then adds his own opinion to it. Still, it is clear that the author is making an additional contribution of his own. In a nutshell, the metaphoric mind is the sort of intuitive, preconscious, "right brained" counterpart to our rationale, logical, "left brain." Some of the material is dated (see Robert Ornstein's _The_Right_Mind_) in terms of the physiological basis for the metaphoric mind. Nevertheless, the concept holds today and the most valuable part of the book, the case for recognition of the metaphoric mind as the necessary and appropriate counterpart to the rationale mind, is intact. All-in-all a thought provoking book which should be of special interest to anyone pursing the topics of Zen, Right/Left Mindedness and Creativity.

Table of Contents: 1. In the Beginning

2. The Rational Side of Metaphor 3. Metaphors of Cycle and Line 4. Rational Mindscapes 5. Shadows of Balance 6. The Gift of Beginning 7. Metaphoric Mindscapes 8. A Short Editorial 9. Sources of Metaphor 10. Motivation and Metaphor 11. The Human Triangle 12. The Fourth Dimension 13. The Disease of Imbalance 14. The New Child

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant study, August 27, 2008

By 

Susan P. Mcnally "avid reader" (Yuba City, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Metaphoric Mind: A Celebration of Creative Consciousness (Paperback)

I read this book years ago when it first came out. My training is in art and psychology, and I was developing a speciality in sand tray therapy with children. In contradistinction to the last review I found this text to be a wonderful study demonstrating the importance of play in the process of learning. I still use several slides photographed from the book when I teach about the process of play therapy and sandplay therapy. Most children intuitively learn about the world in a series of excursions from right brain knowing in the process of play to left brain comprehension and verbalization. I thought it was brilliant.

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, thought provoking, insightful book, December 15, 2010

By 

Assoc For Natural Psych "world of nature" (Newark, NJ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Metaphoric Mind: A Celebration of Creative Consciousness (Paperback)

I read this book in college when it first came out. This and the book, Drawing on the Left Side of the Brain, influenced my thinking on consciousness, on the logical vs. the holistic in our thinking. It is a thought provoking book, non-religious, which leans towards the nature, Zen, in finding innner peace, in finding the whole from the fragments. It is a good commentary on the way our society has come to focus on the logical, measurable, rather than the higher pursuits of thinking and the peaceful/free things of life, such as the cover illustrates.

I enjoyed the book, it helped me think more deeply about our present society and it inadequacies, and at the same time to place higher value on develpoing the mind in the intuitive and holistic. I would recommend it as a research book for college students, or for anyone trying to break free from OCD type of thinking.