Mind Maps

The word "map", in Latin, refers to a towel or a napkin. In the olden days, maps were sometimes drawn on a piece of cloth. A map is a representation of reality which implies a point to point correspondence and it is on a predetermined scale.

Mind Maps of childhood
The beginning of thinking in children is in the form of a map. "Catch them trying to draw a map of a child’s mind, which is not only confused ,but keeps going round all the time," wrote J.M. Barrie in Peter and Wendy.

Mind Maps and the brain
Physiologically, certain portions in the human brain are allotted sensory and motor remote control, of the limbs and extremities. This is a kind of a ‘mind map’ of the human body drawn on the brain. There is a correspondence between each group of neurons in the brain with the actual body part. This "wire up" ensures that the control of the various volitional movements of the body stays within the brain.

Mind Maps and Thinking
The human mind can think of reality, only indirectly. That is, it deals with symbols such as language and images, during the work of adaptation to reality. These processes of adaptation and assimilation, as they occur during the growth and development of the individual have been enumerated by Jean Piaget. He has actually observed four different stages in the development of thinking in the growing child. The child actually "revises" his map of the world over a period of time. Successful adaptation and survival in the world, depends on an accurate representation of reality and also on the subsequent "revisions" of this mind map which occur in the later years.

Mind Maps and the Psychologists
Many great researchers in the world such as Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud and others studied the human mind as psychologists and came to the conclusion that the mind thinks .in terms of images. They were the pioneers of the exploration of that enigma which we call the mind! The fairy tale is his mind map; it is his metaphor of the world. This concept was copiously explored by Eric Berne in his book "What do you say after you say hello?"

Mind Maps in Corporate training
Recently, however, we find the concept of the mind map making its way into various corporate fora. It is being used as a thinking tool.

Tony Buzan is the man to consult here. He has written several books and has explored the concept of mind mapping and its applications in great detail. Since the mind thinks in images, it is useful to put this graphical nature to good use. It may be useful to record ideas during a lecture in a non-linear format. This is done be keeping the central idea in the center of the page. The ideas and concepts which subsequently follow are written radially in the form of a tree or a spray. Such thoughts in a diagrammatic form can be used as a mnemonic aid. It is easier to remember things if they are pictorially displayed.