Book Discussion - Jane on the Brain: Exploring the Science of Social Intelligence With Jane Austen by Wendy Jones
With Wendy Jones as Speaker
By Vonnie Alto, Secretary
Lisa Perrine graciously hosted our November meeting at her lovely Beaverton home. A large turnout of 38 members and friends attended to hear our out-of-town speaker and author, Wendy Jones give her presentation on her book, Jane on the Brain: Exploring the Science of Social Intelligence With Jane Austen.
We all dined on a lovely buffet tea spread of delicacies and desserts: Crustless tea sandwiches of salmon, egg, cucumber, and tuna; Endive with Salmon; Green Tomato Red Bean Dip; pita chips; lemon curd; jellies and jams; buttermilk scones; tarts; brownies; gingerbread pretzels; chocolate chip biscuits; Pepperidge Farms Milano Cookies; shortbreads; nut bread; vanilla bread; strawberries; and baked peach cobbler.
Lisa’s beautiful kitchen served as the place setting for our collection of teapots and cozies with teacup sets.
Our reading group discussion commenced when Wendy Jones gave an engrossing presentation on empathy and personality disorders in Jane Austen’s novels. Wendy’s goal was to write a book for smart, general readers about the mind and the brain in relation to Jane Austen’s works. She discussed how Jane Austen’s extraordinary and empathetic insight into others is fundamental to her popularity. Because Jane Austen portrays human nature accurately, we can use her novels to talk about the mind-brain. In other words, you cannot have sense without sensibility.
Wendy defined empathy as understanding another’s state of mind by thinking and feeling from their perspective and even replicating that emotion. Empathy in Jane Austen’s novels is conveyed through mirroring.
Although Jane Austen didn’t have a lot of therapeutic language available, she still realized that there exists an Empathy Continuum from no empathy to extremely high empathy. When reading Jane Austen’s novels, ask yourself, “Where do you think Jane Austen’s characters belong on the Empathy Continuum?”
Wendy addressed the psychological conditions that disrupt social functions, including mental illness, stupidity, and envy. For example, Emma suffers from limitations of envy. She isn’t paying attention when she fails to empathize.
However, Wendy said that, “We can’t have empathy for everyone all the time or we would go crazy. We need to have boundaries.“
At the opposite end of the Empathy Continuum or spectrum are the psychopaths. Psychopaths can understand when you’re sad but don’t feel it so it means nothing to them. This is the opposite of empathy. When you make others see your pain, they are less likely to hurt you.
Then, there’s the personality disorders: Anti-Social Personality Disorder (APD), Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) – all of which can be seen in Jane Austen’s characters. Some examples of Jane Austen’s characters exhibiting personality disorders are the following: Sir Walter in Persuasion and John Thorpe in Northanger Abbey have NPD; Mr. Elliott in Persuasion has APD; Lady Susan has BPD.
Wendy noted that these disorders weren’t named at the time, nevertheless, Jane Austen with her astuteness could still see what we see today. When there’s a clustering of symptoms, then you can start to name them as our modern, contemporary society has done.
Wendy gave us tips for raising our empathy. She said that we raise our empathy by paying attention to each other and reading—especially reading novels. Of course, reading Jane Austen novels also raises our empathy.
What did our group think? Such a lively, thought provoking discussion followed.
Former Region Coordinator, Bill Boyd, said that Jane Austen is a cure for the world’s evils, that Mrs. Norris in Sense and Sensibility is worse than Fanny Dashwood, and that Fanny Dashwood is a psychopath.
Our current Region Coordinator, Margaret Christmann noted that Mrs. Norris is purposefully destructive to Fanny because she is trying to destroy Fanny.
Jennifer Fleming raised the question, “How do you characterize Lucy Steele in Sense And Sensibility? Wendy answered that Lucy Steele is a psychopath with not a lot of empathy.
Bill Boyd further noted that many characters fit into the autistic continuum, including Mr. Darcy of Pride And Prejudice. Wendy disagreed. She said that Mr. Darcy reads the minds of other characters and is willing to evolve and grow.
Professor Emeritus, Pauline Beard acknowledged that reading Jane on the Brain drove her back into the novels. Pauline referenced the fabulous cartoon on page 80 of the book regarding the automotive metaphor of a vagal break. In Sense And Sensibility, Elinor puts the brake on her emotions when Lucy drops the news of her secret engagement to Edward. To quote Jane Austen, Elinor’s “amazement as too great for words“ then she forces “herself to speak and to speak cautiously” with “a calmness of manner.”
Pauline further noted that Maria marries Rushworth out of revenge in Mansfield Park. Sir Bertram had given Maria the chance to escape her engagement to Rushworth because her father talks about releasing her from the engagement. But Maria is all about revenge. After “the first three or four days after Henry Crawford’s leaving Mansfield Park,” her feelings hadn’t yet been “tranquilized” so “her answer might have been very different.” But when she didn’t hear from him, “her mind became cool enough to seek all the comfort that pride and self-revenge could give.” The key words here are “tranquilized,” “mind,” and “self-revenge.”
Former Teacher and Secretary of our region, Pat Fulbright noted that there’s gold diggers in the novels. For example, in Persuasion, Mr. Elliot tries to protect his inheritance. He’s a psychopath with no conscience or empathy.
Renowned Janeite, Arnie Perlstein said that Jane Austen had a deeper message which alludes to his shadow theory discussed on his blog, Sharp Elves Society. Arnie said that Jane Austen looked at narcissism according to everyday narcissism. Everyone sees the world through our own private eyes. Therefore, we have to struggle to see others who they really are because it’s impossible to be objective.
When reading a Jane Austen’s book, we see the world through the eyes of the heroine. There’s one heroine for each book. All of Jane Austen’s novels are colored by the young subjectivity and narcissism of each heroine. Arnie said if you read the heroine’s viewpoint with suspicion, then you’re on the path to the shadow stories or hidden worlds in Jane Austen’s novels.
Arnie suggests that we read a Jane Austen novel along the lines that everyone is unintentionally a narcissist. When you do, that is how you see the shadow story or sub layers of stories lurking beneath the surface of seeming objectivity. Ask yourself, “Is this the truth? Or, is this the truth seen by heroine?” This truth may not be the objective truth because it’s her truth, in her point of view. Always ask, “Who is the narrator?” The answer is a young woman. Is a young person a reliable narrator? Probably not, Arnie says.
What a deeply insightful presentation on a complex but intriguing subject—Jane Austen’s brain and that of her characters! Thank you Wendy Jones for travelling to our region to present this path breaking study! We thoroughly enjoyed your graciousness and insight into this fascinating topic! For those who read the book, Jane on the Brain: Exploring the Science of Social Intelligence With Jane Austen by Wendy Jones, please write an Amazon review so that Amazon can recognize Wendy. She so deserves the recognition!
Note to our membership: For additional insight into this presentation of Jane on the Brain, please read the meeting minutes for November 2018.
Also, here are some enlightening articles about Wendy’s book, Jane on the Brain:
After the reading group discussion, our region held a business meeting. We voted nearly unanimously to co-sponsor with the Southern Oregon Chapter a stone at Chawton House which will be placed along the garden path. Thank you, Collins Hemingway for your foresight and initiative in temporarily funding the stone which was the last one up for grabs! We also discussed the upcoming play, Sense And Sensibility to be performed at Portland Center Stage. Our region agreed to participate in a discussion and short presentation during the happy hour prelude to the final Sunday matinee.
Then we discussed our 2019 Reading Group Schedule. We are excited that our Spring Tea will feature the renowned actress, Kimberly Brangwin Milham who travels around the U.S. dressed in period costume and talks about the theater during the time of Jane Austen and the plays that Jane attended. Thank you, Frank McClanahan for suggesting her and helping to implement this for our region! We also nominated topics with speakers and voted on them for 2019. For more information, please see our events page.
With Wendy Jones as Speaker
By Vonnie Alto, Secretary
Lisa Perrine graciously hosted our November meeting at her lovely Beaverton home. A large turnout of 38 members and friends attended to hear our out-of-town speaker and author, Wendy Jones give her presentation on her book, Jane on the Brain: Exploring the Science of Social Intelligence With Jane Austen.
We all dined on a lovely buffet tea spread of delicacies and desserts: Crustless tea sandwiches of salmon, egg, cucumber, and tuna; Endive with Salmon; Green Tomato Red Bean Dip; pita chips; lemon curd; jellies and jams; buttermilk scones; tarts; brownies; gingerbread pretzels; chocolate chip biscuits; Pepperidge Farms Milano Cookies; shortbreads; nut bread; vanilla bread; strawberries; and baked peach cobbler.
Lisa’s beautiful kitchen served as the place setting for our collection of teapots and cozies with teacup sets.
Our reading group discussion commenced when Wendy Jones gave an engrossing presentation on empathy and personality disorders in Jane Austen’s novels. Wendy’s goal was to write a book for smart, general readers about the mind and the brain in relation to Jane Austen’s works. She discussed how Jane Austen’s extraordinary and empathetic insight into others is fundamental to her popularity. Because Jane Austen portrays human nature accurately, we can use her novels to talk about the mind-brain. In other words, you cannot have sense without sensibility.
Wendy defined empathy as understanding another’s state of mind by thinking and feeling from their perspective and even replicating that emotion. Empathy in Jane Austen’s novels is conveyed through mirroring.
Although Jane Austen didn’t have a lot of therapeutic language available, she still realized that there exists an Empathy Continuum from no empathy to extremely high empathy. When reading Jane Austen’s novels, ask yourself, “Where do you think Jane Austen’s characters belong on the Empathy Continuum?”
Wendy addressed the psychological conditions that disrupt social functions, including mental illness, stupidity, and envy. For example, Emma suffers from limitations of envy. She isn’t paying attention when she fails to empathize.
However, Wendy said that, “We can’t have empathy for everyone all the time or we would go crazy. We need to have boundaries.“
At the opposite end of the Empathy Continuum or spectrum are the psychopaths. Psychopaths can understand when you’re sad but don’t feel it so it means nothing to them. This is the opposite of empathy. When you make others see your pain, they are less likely to hurt you.
Then, there’s the personality disorders: Anti-Social Personality Disorder (APD), Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) – all of which can be seen in Jane Austen’s characters. Some examples of Jane Austen’s characters exhibiting personality disorders are the following: Sir Walter in Persuasion and John Thorpe in Northanger Abbey have NPD; Mr. Elliott in Persuasion has APD; Lady Susan has BPD.
Wendy noted that these disorders weren’t named at the time, nevertheless, Jane Austen with her astuteness could still see what we see today. When there’s a clustering of symptoms, then you can start to name them as our modern, contemporary society has done.
Wendy gave us tips for raising our empathy. She said that we raise our empathy by paying attention to each other and reading—especially reading novels. Of course, reading Jane Austen novels also raises our empathy.
What did our group think? Such a lively, thought provoking discussion followed.
Former Region Coordinator, Bill Boyd, said that Jane Austen is a cure for the world’s evils, that Mrs. Norris in Sense and Sensibility is worse than Fanny Dashwood, and that Fanny Dashwood is a psychopath.
Our current Region Coordinator, Margaret Christmann noted that Mrs. Norris is purposefully destructive to Fanny because she is trying to destroy Fanny.
Jennifer Fleming raised the question, “How do you characterize Lucy Steele in Sense And Sensibility? Wendy answered that Lucy Steele is a psychopath with not a lot of empathy.
Bill Boyd further noted that many characters fit into the autistic continuum, including Mr. Darcy of Pride And Prejudice. Wendy disagreed. She said that Mr. Darcy reads the minds of other characters and is willing to evolve and grow.
Professor Emeritus, Pauline Beard acknowledged that reading Jane on the Brain drove her back into the novels. Pauline referenced the fabulous cartoon on page 80 of the book regarding the automotive metaphor of a vagal break. In Sense And Sensibility, Elinor puts the brake on her emotions when Lucy drops the news of her secret engagement to Edward. To quote Jane Austen, Elinor’s “amazement as too great for words“ then she forces “herself to speak and to speak cautiously” with “a calmness of manner.”
Pauline further noted that Maria marries Rushworth out of revenge in Mansfield Park. Sir Bertram had given Maria the chance to escape her engagement to Rushworth because her father talks about releasing her from the engagement. But Maria is all about revenge. After “the first three or four days after Henry Crawford’s leaving Mansfield Park,” her feelings hadn’t yet been “tranquilized” so “her answer might have been very different.” But when she didn’t hear from him, “her mind became cool enough to seek all the comfort that pride and self-revenge could give.” The key words here are “tranquilized,” “mind,” and “self-revenge.”
Former Teacher and Secretary of our region, Pat Fulbright noted that there’s gold diggers in the novels. For example, in Persuasion, Mr. Elliot tries to protect his inheritance. He’s a psychopath with no conscience or empathy.
Renowned Janeite, Arnie Perlstein said that Jane Austen had a deeper message which alludes to his shadow theory discussed on his blog, Sharp Elves Society. Arnie said that Jane Austen looked at narcissism according to everyday narcissism. Everyone sees the world through our own private eyes. Therefore, we have to struggle to see others who they really are because it’s impossible to be objective.
When reading a Jane Austen’s book, we see the world through the eyes of the heroine. There’s one heroine for each book. All of Jane Austen’s novels are colored by the young subjectivity and narcissism of each heroine. Arnie said if you read the heroine’s viewpoint with suspicion, then you’re on the path to the shadow stories or hidden worlds in Jane Austen’s novels.
Arnie suggests that we read a Jane Austen novel along the lines that everyone is unintentionally a narcissist. When you do, that is how you see the shadow story or sub layers of stories lurking beneath the surface of seeming objectivity. Ask yourself, “Is this the truth? Or, is this the truth seen by heroine?” This truth may not be the objective truth because it’s her truth, in her point of view. Always ask, “Who is the narrator?” The answer is a young woman. Is a young person a reliable narrator? Probably not, Arnie says.
What a deeply insightful presentation on a complex but intriguing subject—Jane Austen’s brain and that of her characters! Thank you Wendy Jones for travelling to our region to present this path breaking study! We thoroughly enjoyed your graciousness and insight into this fascinating topic! For those who read the book, Jane on the Brain: Exploring the Science of Social Intelligence With Jane Austen by Wendy Jones, please write an Amazon review so that Amazon can recognize Wendy. She so deserves the recognition!
Note to our membership: For additional insight into this presentation of Jane on the Brain, please read the meeting minutes for November 2018.
Also, here are some enlightening articles about Wendy’s book, Jane on the Brain:
- “Jane on the Brain: Exploring the Science of Social Intelligence with Jane Austen” in Publisher’s Weekly:
- Jane on the Brain: Jane Austen and Empathy”11/29/2018.
- “Book Excerpt from Jane on the Brain” in The Scientist, 11/30/2017.
- “Beyond the Reach of Justice or Compassion: Jane Austen’s Mr. Eliot is a Psychopath of the Charming, Dangerous Ilk” in Psychology Today, 1/18/2019.
After the reading group discussion, our region held a business meeting. We voted nearly unanimously to co-sponsor with the Southern Oregon Chapter a stone at Chawton House which will be placed along the garden path. Thank you, Collins Hemingway for your foresight and initiative in temporarily funding the stone which was the last one up for grabs! We also discussed the upcoming play, Sense And Sensibility to be performed at Portland Center Stage. Our region agreed to participate in a discussion and short presentation during the happy hour prelude to the final Sunday matinee.
Then we discussed our 2019 Reading Group Schedule. We are excited that our Spring Tea will feature the renowned actress, Kimberly Brangwin Milham who travels around the U.S. dressed in period costume and talks about the theater during the time of Jane Austen and the plays that Jane attended. Thank you, Frank McClanahan for suggesting her and helping to implement this for our region! We also nominated topics with speakers and voted on them for 2019. For more information, please see our events page.
