Re: Footnote to Carl's reply to Ken

From: James H. Vellenga (jhv0@viewlogic.com)
Date: Fri May 10 1996 - 14:14:57 EDT


> From: Edward Hobbs <EHOBBS@wellesley.edu>
>
> "Thinking with the heart" isn't just Hebrew liturgical psychology. The
> entire system of "psychology" in ancient Hebrew thought has everything
> shifted down about a foot from our "modern" notions. (Or, as Freud has
> pointed out, we have created an upwad displacement of emotion and thought!)
>
> Why the "mind" should be in the head (as we tend to suppose) is not clear,
> though modern science shows that the brain is heavily involved (!). But
> the Hebrews thought with their hearts, and felt compassion with their guts
> ("I beg you, by the guts of Christ..."), and used their kidneys to long for
> their offspring. I'm not clear that today's notion of loving someone with
> one's heart is better than loving someone with one's guts (which is where I
> personally seem to be more aware of feelings--but maybe I'm only an ancient
> Hebrew at heart--oops, at guts).
>
It seems to me also that Hebrew was originally a "right-brained" language
-- though I'm not a psycholinguist. Is this why Semitic languages are
written right-to-left? In any event, the Biblical Hebrew seems to use
a lot of imagery throughout, and not just when the writer or speaker
is being poetic. So I would think that to understand the references
we need to think more intuitively and less analytically.

Regards,
Jim V.

James H. Vellenga | jvellenga@viewlogic.com
Viewlogic Systems, Inc. __|__ 508-480-0881
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