Christian psychologist and therapist Wayne E. Oates wrote, “Two tuning forks that are alike will pick up each other’s vibrations. Persons are prone to imitate people they like. Therefore, change can be created in another person by stimulating the desire to be like you.” (The Psychology of Religion. Word Books, 1973, p. 157). In 1973 Oates uttered this “true” statement from the standpoint of the emotional and the evident frameworks (direct observation) of psychology. Today the neurosciences can make this same statement. But more and more, their frame of reference is the biological and the scientific.

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I’ve had a string of conversations recently with supervisors related to troubling staff. Few things seem as frustrating as working with underfunctioning or incompetent staff persons. Ironically, the overwhelming feeling by supervisors is one of powerlessness in the face of ineptitude. Other common dilemmas that get supervisors stuck are: the trap of needing to be liked, wanting to be seen as “fair” and “understanding,” and the fear of making a tough decision that will affect another’s life.

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The final entry for ”Brain Week” is a video of a 2007 roundtable discussion on the topic of “Mind, Brain, and Spirituality: Toward a Biology of the Soul” featuring Martin Bergmann, Siri Hustvedt, Jaak Panksepp, David Pincus, and theolgianThandeka.

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Today’s “Brain Week” feature is a link to the website of the PBS series, “The Secret Life of the Brain.” The series originally aired in 2002. The website includes a summary of the five episodes which take a developmental view: The Baby’s Brain, The Child’s Brain, The Teenage Brain, The Adult Brain, and The Aging Brain.

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Today’s “Brain Week” feature is from the New York Review of Books. The June 26, 2008 issue featured a review of seven current works on the brain. Click on the link to see the reviews by Israel Rosenfield and Edward Ziff, “How the Mind Works: Revelations.” Here is an excerpt:

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This is “Brain Week” on the GRACE writes blog. This week we’ll feature items related to the brain, the mind, and learning. Today’s entry features an article by Robert Stickgold and Jeffrey Elenbogen, “Sleep on It: Snoozing Makes Your Smarter” which appeared in Scientific American (August 7, 2008). Here’s an excerpt:

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Every once in a while I get a request for a basic reading list for studying Bowen Family Systems Theory (BFST). The good news is that I find I need to update that basic list as more good resources become available. Here is the current book list I pass along to persons who ask for it.

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Full disclosure: I’ve not read Warren’s fabulously successful Purpose Driven Live. There is a copy of it in our home as my wife was required to read it as part of a staff development team-building activity at the church where she works. So, perhaps I’ll get to it at some point.

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Adam Kieper wrote a review of Michael Gazzanig’s book, Human titled, “The Synapse and the Soul.” It appears in The Wall Street Journal (July 8, 2008). He begins, interestingly, with philosophical questions:

What is it that makes us human – that sets us apart from other animals? What drives us to act altruistically? Why do we gossip and flirt and empathize? How do we judge beauty, and why are we impelled to create works of art?

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Um…this is what I like to call those interesting, awkward things we do when we speak in front of a group. Whether we are like preaching, speaking in a Sunday school class, or leading a training session, we all have what I call “The ‘Um’ Factor”.

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