David Linden - Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart and Mind

How do you feel?
David Linden looks at the sensation of touch, from its biological origins to its deep impact on the human experience.
David J. Linden, Ph.D., is a professor in the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His laboratory has worked for many years on the cellular substrates of memory storage, recovery of function following brain injury and a few other topics. He has a longstanding interest in scientific communication and served for many years as the Chief Editor of the Journal of Neurophysiology. Dr. Linden is the author of three books: The Accidental Mind (2008, Independent Publisher Book Awards, Science Category), New York Times Bestseller, The Compass of Pleasure (2011, Viking Press), and his latest publication Touch (2015, Viking/Penguin). Linden lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his two children.

[@jonpruitt8376]

This topic is intriguing, since I began to more deeply realize that ones mind is the ultimate decider of physical sensations. His thoughts point out how intrinsic emotion and touch are, and how perception is affected by ones emotions subconsciously. Our physical expressions on the world are felt to be less than experienced, reminds me of the disconnect people seem to have from their empathy. If you can't feel the full effect of your communication or physicality, one may show less empathy or understanding of ones impact. This is where empathy would be considered the tool to combat this behavior and while much of empathy is a part of our minds, it is not unlike the nature of humans to struggle with emotional connection when touch is deprived at the key stages of development. If one is not given the chance to look more deeply into a part of ones mind and experience the effect and purpose of empathy, if one is not given the opportunity to learn, it is logical one will oft struggle to apply it to many aspects of ones life. The oft lack of remorse for our actions in the digital world would seem to be intrinsic with our programming.

[@JGEssex]

Very helpful to me. I am an expressive arts therapist, doing psychotherapy with the arts. It helped me understand how important my various warm-ups for the hands when starting a session.

[@juliehammond5822]

Fascinating!