“In medieval times, the left hand was associated with the Black Arts, wizards, and sorcery. In witchcraft, evil spells are cast by laying on the left hand, and left-handed oath is never to be trusted” [Taken from a Baylor College of Medicine article written by Adrian Flatt, MD]
In many languages, ‘right’ stands for:
- authority
- correct
- skillful
- justice
Whereas ‘left’ stands for:
- bad
- illegal
- immoral
- sloppy
- clumsy
- devil
- evil
- unlucky
[Reference: Wikipedia]
Apparently, August 13th was officially left-handers day, as my wife just emailed me this sinister link.
We are both left-handed, but our kids are all right handed. Interestingly, one of the leading theories (CBG) on left-handedness suggests that it’s not a genetic thing, but rather a byproduct of fetal brain injury.
According to the Geschwind-Behan-Galaburda (CBG) theory, early injury to the left hemisphere of the brain forces language and motor function to leave its native place on the left side and migrate over and develop in the right hemisphere.The CBD theory states only right-handed children have developed normally.
Don’t despair yet, fellow lefties. Tests by Alan Searleman from St. Lawrence University found there were more left-handed people with IQs over 140 than right-handed people. Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein were all left-handed.
William Hopkins, a researcher at Emory University, notes: “It may be that left handed people occupy the extremes when it comes to health and ability. The anomaly is left-handed people make up the extremely gifted and the extremely compromised. The rest of us make up the middle ground.”
Yesterday at a local used bookstore, I picked up a copy of The Left-Hander Syndrome: The Causes and Consequences of Left-Handedness, by Stanley Coren. Although I have of course been very conscious of my sinistrality from the time I entered preschool and have read a bit about statistical differences between predominantly right- and left-handed people, I have never studied the subject in-depth or with much concern, so I look forward to learning a thing or two about myself in this regard.
From what little I do know about lefties, though, it seems that we tend to be extremists in a number of ways, from lifespan to intelligence to perhaps the common trait of right-hemispheric laterality. I found this out several years ago after being told by a psychologist that I am a “minority” in three different ways, handedness, personality (introversion), and artistic talent. I can think of a few more without breaking a sweat, which is both socially disjointing and, at the same time, intellectually and creatively empowering.
I was always curious as to why left is associated wtih ‘evil’, ‘devil’, and ‘black arts’. If the book by Stanley Coren sheds any further light on this, I’d love to hear.
Interestingly, one of the leading theories (CBG)…
…According to the Geschwind-Behan-Galaburda (CBG) theory
…The CBD theory states only right-handed children have developed normally…
Am I going crazy here??? One would think this might be the Geschwind-Behan-Galaburda (GBG) Theory of Left-Handedness? LoL
(-:
Left handedness is a fetal disorder that causes people to be extremely gifted? Yet people associate left with evil. I don’t get our society.
“In medieval times, the left hand was associated with the Black Arts, wizards, and sorcery”
Is there any proven basis for this-manuscripts, artwork, etc?
I think that being prominently right brain causes the gifts bestowed upon the left handed.