Alice Weaver Flaherty
Alice Weaver Flaherty
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Full Name and Common Aliases
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Alice Weaver Flaherty was an American neuroscientist and author known for her work on the neural basis of creativity and imagination.
Birth and Death Dates
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Born in 1951, Alice Weaver Flaherty passed away in 2019.
Nationality and Profession(s)
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Flaherty's nationality was American, and she worked as a neuroscientist and author. Her professional background spanned various disciplines, including psychology, neuroscience, and literature.
Early Life and Background
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Alice Weaver Flaherty grew up in a family that encouraged her to explore the arts and sciences. She developed an interest in creative writing at an early age and went on to study English Literature at Harvard University. Her academic pursuits led her to pursue a career in neuroscience, where she could combine her passion for writing with her fascination with the human brain.
Major Accomplishments
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Flaherty's groundbreaking work focused on the neural basis of creativity and imagination. She conducted research on the brain regions involved in creative thinking and published several papers on this topic. Her most notable contributions to the field include identifying key areas of brain activity associated with artistic creation and proposing a new model for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying imagination.
Notable Works or Actions
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Some of Alice Weaver Flaherty's notable works include:
"The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, from Romanticism through Steam-Powered Typewriters to Captagon Addiction" (2005): This book explores the psychological and neurological underpinnings of creativity, drawing on her own experiences as a writer and researcher.
Research papers published in leading neuroscience journals, such as Neuron and Nature Reviews Neuroscience, where she presented her findings on brain activity associated with creative thinking.
Impact and Legacy
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Flaherty's work had a significant impact on our understanding of the neural basis of creativity. Her research shed new light on the mechanisms underlying artistic creation, inspiring a new generation of neuroscientists and writers to explore the intersection of art and science. As an author, she also made important contributions to the literary world by exploring the psychological and neurological aspects of creative writing.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
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Alice Weaver Flaherty is widely quoted or remembered for her groundbreaking research on the neural basis of creativity and imagination. Her work has had a lasting impact on our understanding of artistic creation, inspiring many to explore the connection between art and science. As an author, she also left behind a body of work that continues to resonate with readers interested in the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, and literature.
As we reflect on her life and legacy, it becomes clear that Alice Weaver Flaherty was more than just a researcher or writer; she was a pioneering figure who pushed the boundaries of our understanding of creativity and imagination.
Quotes by Alice Weaver Flaherty

When others’ obsessions are not ours, we are sad for them, and we talk of how empty their lives will be if they don’t achieve their empty goal: the gymnastics prize, the firm partnership. But there is a monomania in which it is the focus, the sense of transport, that is the real pleasure.

Nonetheless, writing regularly, inspiration or no, is not a bad way to eventually get into an inspired mood; the plane has to bump along the runway for a while before it finally takes off.

Several factors besides skill are more significant in professional writers than in most amateurs. One is love of the surface level of language: the sound of it; the taste of it on the tongue; what it can be made to do in virtuosic passages that exist only for their own sake, like cadenzas in baroque concerti. Writers in love with their tools are not unlike surgeons obsessed with their scalpels, or Arctic sled racers who sleep among their dogs even when they don’t have to.

The drive to write produces a first draft; it is the drive to write well that produces the second, third, twentieth. Thus.

It’s no fun feeling your thoughts are being controlled by an electrode, and someone else is holding the clicker.

The mania is like wasps under the skin, like my head’s going to explode with ideas.

A creative idea will be defined simply as one that is both novel and useful or influential in a particular social setting.

Several factors besides skill are more significant in professional writers than in most amateurs. One is love of the surface level of language: the sound of it; the taste of it on the tongue; what it can be made to do in virtuosic passages that exist only for their own sake, like cadenzas in baroque concerti. Writers in love with their tools are not unlike surgeons obsessed with their scalpels, or Arctic sled racers who sleep among their dogs even when they don't have to.

It's no fun feeling your thoughts are being controlled by an electrode, and someone else is holding the clicker.
