Mental literacy

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Mental literacy is a pseudoscientific and popular psychological term coined by Tony Buzan.

Origins

Tony Buzan, the "mind map guru" originated the term mental literacy. The term is directly derived from the computer literacy metaphor and used to infer how the brain can be used as a "super biocomputer". The metaphor also implies that the mind uses a set of languages in order to operate and that humans often have difficulty utilising them without added aid from methods of organisation, like those presented by Buzan.

The term was invented for the purposes of recruiting with a view to becoming mentally literate and fulfilling the advertised promise of harnessing a purported 99 percent unused brain power. The desired vision is to spread mental literacy throughout the world. As yet, the vision has succeeded in generating a large following and the sale of handbooks such as the Mind Map Book, by Tony Buzan.

The Mind Map Book

"As knowledge of the alphabet and its permutations and combinations is to traditional literacy, and as a knowledge of numbers and their permutations and combinations is to mathematics, so a knowledge of the biological and conceptual alphabets of the brain and its apparently infinite permutations and combinations is to mental literacy."

"The world is historically mentally illiterate."

"Even traditionally well educated and literate individuals are significantly restricted by the fact that they are able to use only a fraction of the biological and conceptual thinking tools which are available (the mind map)."

The Mind Map Book, Buzan and Buzan 1991

v t e Literacy

Teaching literacy	Reading education in the USA Phonics Whole language Dick and Jane National Council of Teachers of English NCLB Family literacy Adolescent literacy

Defining literacy	Functional illiteracy Critical literacy

Literacy internationally	International Reading Association List of countries by literacy rate Literacy in India International Literacy Day List of Chinese administrative divisions by illiteracy rate

Major contributors to literacy	Frank Laubach Ruth Johnson Colvin Paulo Freire Griffith Jones Marie Clay

Related concepts	Agricultural literacy Aliteracy Asemic writing Computer literacy Cultural literacy Dyslexia Diaspora literacy Ecological literacy Electracy Emotional literacy Financial literacy Health literacy Information literacy Information and media literacy Literacy test Media literacy Mental health literacy Mental literacy New literacies Numeracy Oracy Orality Oral literature Postliterate society Racial literacy Scientific literacy Statistical literacy Technological literacy Transliteracy Visual literacy Writing system

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Mental literacy

Origins

The Mind Map Book

See also