$160.00 $80.00
All 4 weeks
$160.00 $80.00
All 4 weeks
Dual Brain Science
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"I'm in two minds"
"I'm confused"
"I feel conflicted"
"I'm torn between what to do - my head is telling me one thing, my heart is feeling another"
"I feel an inner turmoil which is affecting everything I do"
If any of the above statements sound familiar to you,
it may be because our brains are divided in two, we literally have two minds. They are supposed to work together to provide a balance of psychological clarity and strength. But often, they do not.
Why?
That's a big question, if you are open to exploring a bit of Dual Brain Science, read on...
"Dual Brain Science is a new field engaged in exploring scientifically the role of the left and right brains and their relationship in psychological functioning".
Dr Fredric Schiffer
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There was a time when the different hemispheres became mainstream for a while, a part of 'pop-psychology'. The left hemisphere was presented as the logical, mathematical side, and the right hemisphere presented as the creative, artistic side. When scientists and researchers found that the issue was far more complicated than they'd originally believed, most of them abandoned the whole field of Dual Brain Science.
Most of them, but not all. Some have persevered with the research to put the true story of the hemispheres back on the table.
And what a story it is...
‘Psychiatrist debunks the left brain/right brain myth,’ the headline proclaims. Always interested to learn more, I read on, only to discover that the psychiatrist in question is – myself. This puts its finger on the nub of the matter. I don’t believe in the left brain/right brain myth: I believe in discovering the truth about hemisphere difference. There can be no question that it would be foolish to believe most of what has passed into popular culture on the topic of hemisphere differences. And yet it would be just as foolish to believe that therefore there are no important hemisphere differences. There are massively important ones, which lie at the core of what it means to be a human being. It’s just that we’ve been barking up the wrong tree.
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Iain McGilchrist
​The left hemisphere:
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Is responsible for most aspects of language, and is the internal narrator (the voice in your head).
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Manages some aspects of logical and rational thought.
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Is analytical, narrow, sharp and pays attention to detail.
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Has a proclivity to seek mechanical perfection, tangible categories and coding.
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Left on its own, it is contained in an enclosed system, an echo chamber, a ‘hall of mirrors’.
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Is static and decontextualized.
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Demands clarity and precision.
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Does not see the whole, only fragmented parts.
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The right hemisphere:
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Is curious, looks out for what might be different from our expectations, is future oriented and welcomes change and the concept of evolving.
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Reads body language and emotional facial expressions.
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Is the centre for emotions (but not responsible for anger, which is in the left hemisphere’s domain).
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Is intuitive, self-aware, empathetic, flexible, takes risks and finds solutions.
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Displays insight, imagination, visualisation and experimentation.
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Understands nuance, ‘gets’ the joke,
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Deconstructs metaphors.
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Is playful.
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Is interested in individual concepts, not categories and is attuned to living things rather than mechanical objects.
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Sees the whole interconnected picture.
Isolated Hemispheres
After seeing the different qualities of each hemisphere of course it is obvious that both are necessary. Problems arise when one hemisphere becomes dominant, when there is an imbalance or non-integration of duel consciousness.
People who have suffered from a stroke or an injury of the right or left hemisphere offer a view into the world of a single-hemispheric state:
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Single State of Left Hemisphere
Through damage to the right hemisphere, patients have an absence of vitality with lifeless eyes and mechanical behaviour. They feel disassociated, cut off from feelings and experience a change in the feeling of self - a foreignness of the self, a sense of being a puppet or a spectator. Their sense of 'I' has separated and they feel locked outside of their bodies (1).
Single state of Right Hemisphere
Patients are usually unable to give an account of their experience of left hemisphere damage, due to an inability of access or connection to their language centre. However a rare glimpse into the isolated world of the right hemisphere was provided by neuroanatomist Jill Bolt Taylor after a major hemorrhage erupted in her left hemisphere. She tells us that the boundary of reality receded and she 'ventured unfettered into the peaceful bliss of my divine right mind'.
With the loss of her language centre, she also lost the internal narrator which told her what she liked and didn't like, and she was also released from the ego's judgement when a limited view of her identity disappeared. Only the present moment existed as time became irrelevant. The 'doing consciousness' shifted to the 'being consciousness'. The burden of stress, anger and hostility left her and she felt a strong sense of empathy for others and was able to tune into their facial expressions and body language and experienced people as bringing negative or positive energy. She had a feeling of freedom, peace, compassion and joy, and gained a childlike curiosity . A sense of expansion took the place of feeling of isolation and smallness and she felt the expanded energy would not fit back into her body. She felt a life-force of energy containing the power of the universe and lost all fear.
She says that the intuitive wisdom of the right hemisphere can only be realised when the consciousness of the left hemisphere is decreased (2).
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1 Iain McGilchrist, The Master and his Emissary, pp. 235-237.
2 Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight.
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Iain McGilchrist
The work of Iain McGilchrist has revived the conversation and his exhaustive research promises to rewrite the story of dual hemispheric differences. McGilchrist begins by telling us that the most ‘fundamental difference between the hemispheres lies in the type of attention they give to the world.
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Prominent Players in the field of Dual Brain Science:
Jill Bolte Taylor
Dr Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist whose research specialized in understanding how our brain creates our perception of reality. She was interested in this subject because she has a brother who is diagnosed with the brain disorder schizophrenia.
Allan Schore
Dr Allan Schore is on the clinical faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. Schore connects psychotherapy research with neuroscientific laterality research, two fields that rarely interact and have very different scientific traditions.
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Fredric Schiffer
Dr Fredric Schiffer is a psychiatrist, is on the faculty at the Harvard Medical School and is Associate Attending Psychiatrist at McLean Hospital. His writing has been published in the field's most prestigious publications, including the Journal of Neuropsychiatry, Comprehensive Psychiatry, and the Harvard Review of Psychiatry. Dr. Schiffer also maintains a clinical practice in adult psychiatry in Newton, Massachusetts.
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