Visually Mediated Thinking: A Report of the Case of Albert Einstein

Abstract

Statements of contemporary scientists, a psychologist friend of Einstein, and the eminent physicist Albert Einstein himself all indicate that the creative thought process responsible for the relativity theory and all the other Einsteinian innovations was completely nonverbal and was mediated through the constructive manipulation of mentally visualized images. A biographical review shows that Einstein had a disability in verbal realms that contrasted sharply with his ability in nonverbal spheres of activity. The scientist's poor school work, childhood misbehavior, and deficient and delayed language skills are explainable by a developmental defect in verbal learning probably due to a dysfunction of the dominant hemisphere. With the same considerations, his extraordinary visual and spatial abilities can be explained by a compensatory increase in function of the nondominant hemisphere. This scientific genius was able to overcome a handicap by circumventing the verbal modality in which he was deficient, achieving greatness through an unusual way of visual thinking. I suggest that other people might benefit from a similarly applied strategy for solving problems, and that our present verbally oriented educational system may be preventing geniuses in visual thinking from achieving their full potential.