The brain is divided into two halves. The right generally gives rise to intuition, feelings, spontaneity, artistic endeavour, and the left promotes logic, reason, deductive thought and judgment. Traditionally, very artistic and spontaneous people were labelled as right-brain and the more logical and deductive were left-brain.
However much modern research shows that there’s not really a down-the-middle divide. Common sense will tell us that it will enhance our artistic work if we apply some logic to our endeavours and we’ll be better technologists if we have an appreciation of art. In good enough growth our innate tendency in one is complemented by the other.
Balance in respect of this growth is what this post is about.
Have a look at Abraham Maslow’s well-known hierarchy of needs – pictured in his iconic pyramid below. This pyramid is well known and is studied in almost all helping type Courses. (Though I could never figure out why it gets smaller as it gets higher)!
To achieve something close to our true potential (self-actualisation as Maslow called it) the cognitive-logical-rational side of the brain (left) and the creative-irrational-imagination side (right) need to develop together, and in sympathy with each other.
The needs (self-fulfilment) towards the top of the pyramid imply a healthy balance in this development as we grow, as neural connections continually pass messages from one side to the other. Trauma can disrupt the healthy growth of these connections, and thereby the moderation of one side by the other.
Learning to trust both sides of our brain in deciding on responses to challenges in our lives depends on our early security and safety needs being met, so that the neural connections will grow. (We will discuss this further under Attachment in the next Sub-Chapter).
But if we feel unsafe or insecure all the time, and/or we experience ongoing trauma a split develops between the left (logical) and right (creative) and they tend to develop independently.
Say, for example, I am a child taking a risk in a family. A very common risk is to voice an opinion on something that I feel strongly about. (This could be, for example, my own safety).
If I am fearful of being severely punished for making a mistake (in this case saying the wrong thing), I may lean too far towards the purely logical side when I come to make a decision, suppressing my natural impulsive side.
As the two sides of my brain develop almost independently, I become rigid in my thinking and fearful of risk-taking. This is because it leads to punishment, and very often shame, humiliation, and perhaps physical and emotional pain. This is very left brain – with the effect of the right brain (creative, impulsive, empathy) suppressed.
So I learn to protect myself by taking everything literally because voicing an opinion based on emotions brings disapproval or even punishment.
But emotions cannot be suppressed for ever.
So, under pressure, I may have an emotional outburst which is totally out of proportion to the issue. This is my right brain, totally impulsive, and is not moderated by my left-brain rational or logical thinking.
However, if I am rewarded for voicing my opinion on a matter that I feel strongly about I will be better able, in the long term, to apply logical or rational reasoning to the more impulsive side. As the left and right sides develop together, one will moderate the other, the rational-logical assisting the creative-impulsive, and the creative-impulsive, in turn, assisting the rational-logical.
The balanced development (this is beginning to sound like a politician trying to push through a planning application) means that if I have a sudden impulse to be creative, or intuitive, my thinking brain will kick in to assess what outcome might occur if I follow through on my impulse.
So, I can’t really identify what or how I feel (and/or can’t predict what might happen) until the left-brain analyses my feeling and identifies it as something tangible – i.e. gives it a label that makes sense to me, something I recognise. How well it does this, and how well the prefrontal cortex (the part of my brain that is responsible for self-awareness, reflection, decision making) develops depends on how well the neural connections between the two halves have developed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The most important aspect of this, from the point of view of our theory of change, is that balanced development is optimised in an environment where our root foundations (described in the previous Chapter on Universal Theories) are permitted to work away as we grow.
If they are disallowed, or not accepted, (for example, if our potential to grow is not allowed emerge naturally or our identity is confused, or we are growing up in an atmosphere where love is very conditional) the balanced development may be slowed down or indeed it might not happen at all.
As adults, when we become aware of the importance of attending to it – in, for example a supportive or therapeutic environment – we may sometimes be resistant to allowing our root foundations to flourish – as our long held suspicion of others’ motives kicks in.
In my experience our resistance will dissipate by being allowed grow at our own pace (and enabled and facilitated) rather than being force fed with one-way knowledge flow and time-limited plans.
And while I am on the subject of right brain and left brain – I have always found it interesting that the right in our popular and political culture implies rigidity, conservatism (right-wing) and the left implies radical change, spontaneity, creativity etc. (left-wing) – whereas in our brains it is the opposite.
Just a left-brain thought!