Author: Stanley Coren
Publisher: New York : Free Press ; Toronto : Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; New York : Maxwell Macmillan International
ISBN:
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 328
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Book Description
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Author: Howard I. Kushner
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421423340
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 217
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Book Description
Does being left-handed make a person different in any way that matters? Since the late Stone Age, approximately 10 percent of humans have been left-handed, yet for most of human history left-handedness has been stigmatized. In On the Other Hand, Howard I. Kushner traces the impact of left-handedness on human cognition, behavior, culture, and health. A left-hander himself, Kushner has long been interested in the meanings associated with left-handedness, and ultimately with whether hand preference can even be defined in a significant way. As he explores the medical and cultural history of left-handedness, Kushner describes the associated taboos, rituals, and stigma from around the globe. The words “left” and “left hand” have negative connotations in all languages, and left-handers have even historically been viewed as disabled. In this comprehensive history of left-handedness, Kushner asks why left-handedness exists. He examines the relationship—if any—between handedness, linguistics, and learning disabilities, reveals how toleration of left-handedness serves as a barometer of wider cultural toleration and permissiveness, and wonders why the reported number of left-handers is significantly lower in Asia and Africa than in the West. Written in a lively style that mixes personal biography with scholarly research, On the Other Hand tells a comprehensive story about the science, traditions, and prejudices surrounding left-handedness.
Author: Alan Bellows
Publisher: Workman Publishing
ISBN: 0761152253
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 306
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Book Description
Contains over ninety weird-but-true stories reported on DamnInteresting.com, telling of alien hand syndrome, Nazi-thwarting Norwegians, the skyhook, and other oddities.
Author: Melissa Roth
Publisher: Government Institutes
ISBN: 1590771516
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
This book demystifies the place left-handness has held in society, shedding new light on this controversial discussion.
Author: Rik Smits
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1861899742
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306
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Book Description
Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama have both signed bills into law with their left hands. And being left-handed certainly did not hold back the artistic achievements of Michelangelo or Raphael. And the dexterous guitar playing of Jimmi Hendrix may only have been aided by his southpaw tendencies. Left-handedness, in fact, would appear to be no big deal. Yet throughout history, it has been associated with clumsiness and generally dubious personality traits like untrustworthiness and insincerity. Even the Latin word for left, sinister, has ominous connotations. In The Puzzle of Left-handedness, Rik Smits uncovers why history has been so unkind to our lefthanded forebears. He carefully puts together the pieces of the puzzle, presenting an array of historical anecdotes, strange superstitions, and weird wives’ tales. Smits explains how left-handedness continues to be associated with maladies of all kinds, including mental retardation, alcoholism, asthma, hay fever, cancer, diabetes, insomnia, depression, and criminality. Even in the enlightened twenty-first century, left-handedness still meets with opposition—including from one prominent psychologist who equates it with infantile negativism, similar to a toddler’s refusal to eat what’s on his plate, and another who claims that left-handed people have average lifespans that are nine years shorter than those who favor the right hand. As Smits reminds us, such speculation is backed by little factual evidence, and the arguments presented by proponents of right-handedness tend to be humorously absurd. The Puzzle of Left-handedness is an enlightening, engaging, and entertaining odyssey through the puzzles and paradoxes, theories and myths, of left-handed lore. Chock full of facts and fiction, it’s a book to be read with both hands.
Author: Stanley Coren
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476728461
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 398
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Book Description
Nine out of every ten human beings are naturally right-handed. Those who were not right-handed were feared, shunned, or forcibly retrained in many periods and cultures. Indeed, some members of fundamentalist sects still regard left-handers as in league with the devil, and prejudices against left-handers are reflected in the multiple associations of right with good and left with bad that have become enshrined in everyday language and folklore. A “left-handed compliment” is actually an insult, and the dictionary definition of left-handed includes the terms “awkward,” “clumsy,” “ill-omened,” and “Illegitimate.” In his summary of scientific research into sidedness, Stanley Coren rapidly dismisses the notion of the southpaw as somehow tainted. Increasingly we are coming to understand, however, that left-handedness does have social, educational, medical, and psychological implications. Coren uses entertaining examples to illuminate the paths of research he has followed, and answers vitally important questions such as: What are the neuropsychological and behavioral implications of differences for left-handers themselves, as well as for their parents, teachers, spouses, children, counselors, and physicians? How can we determine our own patterns of sidedness? Are they encoded in our genes? And, very importantly, how can we make the world more comfortable and safer for left-handers? Coren persuasively argues that left-handers are an invisible minority who must define themselves and organize for self-protections in the same way that more visible minorities have done. Much (though not all) of the risk to which left-handers are exposed derives from the fact that the tools they use and the machines they operate are designed for right-handers, a flaw that given heightened public awareness would be easy to correct. Coren advocates a change in the way the right-handed majority treats its left-handed minority to eliminate the risks left-handers face.
Author: James T. De Kay
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780871313096
Category : American wit and humor, Pictorial
Languages : en
Pages : 150
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Book Description
A lighthearted look at the inside-out world of left-handedness, seeking to prove what left-handers have always suspected - they are not only different from everybody else, they are better. Drawing on NASA statistics and neurological surgical research, the book makes its points with sly good humour.
Author: Sharon J. Butler
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781572240391
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 178
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Book Description
Guided by symptom charts, you select the best exercises for restoring the range of motion to overworked hands, arm shoulders, fingers, wrists.
Author: I. C. McManus
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674016132
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436
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Book Description
McManus considers evidence from anthropology, particle physics, the history of medicine, and the notebooks of Leonardo to answer questions like: Why are most people right-handed? Why does European writing go from left to right, while Arabic and Hebrew go from right to left? And how do we know that Jack the Ripper was left-handed?
Author: Vladimir Golovchinsky
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780792378051
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 192
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Book Description
Carpal-tunnel and other entrapment syndromes are perhaps the most common work-related injuries currently reported. With this book, Vladimir Golovchinsky presents the first evidence of double-crush syndrome as a subgroup of these. To date the existence of double-crush syndrome has been a matter of debate. Dr. Golovchinsky presents a statistical analysis of substantial clinical material, which finds a cause-and-effect relationship between cervical or lumbar radiculopathy and peripheral entrapment in corresponding nerves, thus proving the existence of double-crush syndrome. This book will be invaluable to physicians performing EMG-NCV testing and to other healthcare professionals who encounter peripheral entrapment syndromes in their practices.
