Heroes Not Zombies

Human beings are sense-making creatures. We continuously process all the information we can gather from our environments – internal and external – and try to put the information together somehow. I think we use two particular sets of skills to do this, and they’re related.

The first skill is pattern spotting.

What do we think when we look up and see this?

We pick out the colours, the shapes and the contexts of what we see, and we name it – sunlight behind oak leaves, casting overlapping shadows.

This happens so quickly and effortlessly that we don’t even pause to wonder about it. In fact, we’re seeing patterns everywhere, all the time. It’s a fundamental skill needed for understanding.

The other skill we use is storytelling, or narrative. We “join the dots”, or “put things together” by creating narratives. By creating stories we make sense of the patterns we see. Personal sense. When you look at this oak tree for example, you’ll perhaps become aware of certain feelings, and maybe those feelings related to previous experiences involving oak trees. As a species we create stories about trees, and, specifically, about oak trees, so maybe some of those stories will come to mind and your experience of looking at this tree will be enriched by that.

Well, here’s an interesting study which explores how we might enhance these core skills. The first sentence of the report caught my attention –

Reading a book by Franz Kafka –– or watching a film by director David Lynch –– could make you smarter.

Pardon?

Well, according to the psychologists who conducted this study –

exposure to the surrealism in, say, Kafka’s “The Country Doctor” or Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” enhances the cognitive mechanisms that oversee implicit learning functions

It appears that reading a text, or watching a movie which is challenging to understand because it doesn’t appear to make sense, enhances our skills in making sense! I suppose it’s a bit like going to the gym (I wouldn’t know….never been!) and practising using your muscles so that they then work more efficiently and with greater strength.

Well, the questions which arise about what do they mean by “smarter” are answered by the specifics of the study. What they actually showed was that after reading Kafka, or watching a David Lynch movie, a person’s ability to spot patterns was enhanced.

Interesting. Actually, I spend most of every day trying to spot patterns, listening to stories, and trying to make sense of what I’m seeing and hearing. You could say that’s my job. But how interesting, even from the perspective of training doctors. Maybe we should be encouraging doctors and medical students to encounter surrealism, to read Kafka and watch David Lynch. Maybe that would help them to become more skilled doctors. The practice of medicine isn’t all about learning facts after all.

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