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| Diagram of the brain (circa 1300) |
According to an established neuro-scientific model it seems that we are possessed of three brains: an original "reptilian" brain — or autonomic nervous system — which controls our visceral, bodily functions and our primal, automatic instincts (e.g. the "fight or flight" response); an amygdala, or "mammalian", or "feeling" brain, which developed at a later stage and is responsible for memory and emotions; and a more sophisticated prefrontal cortex, or "thinking", rational brain, which was the last to evolve. (I'm simplifying here — things are more complex than this, and brain functions much more interrelated. However, this basic pattern will serve my purpose.)
All these three brains come into play, either together or separately, at different times and in different situations. For instance, in states of extreme trauma, the autonomic nervous system can shut down all the other parts of the brain completely. And, as another example, the "thinking" brain is able, to a greater or lesser extent, to control the "feeling" brain and temper extreme emotions. Conversely, the "feeling" brain can at times (e.g. in the throes of a passionate love affair) override the "thinking" brain. A balanced, fully functioning person may be regarded as having a balance between the "thinking" and the "feeling" brain: too much "thinking" may stultify one's emotional and empathic capacity, and too much "feeling" may compromise one's rational mind to a worrying degree.
The reason I'm mentioning all this neurological background stuff is because I feel a need to write a series of posts about feelings and emotions, particularly negative feelings and emotions: how they arise, how they adversely affect our lives, how we deal with them. I hope you will join me on this emotional journey and perhaps share some of your own personal feelings and experiences along the way . . .
Bring it on! I look forward to reading your insights. I would be very interested in knowing whether, from an evolutionary standpoint, the trajectory is for the newer brains to grow in influence, while the older brains diminish in relative influence. One would think so, yet there seems to be evidence in some quarters of people taking more and more refuge in their reptilian brains, perhaps because their survival instincts are increasingly threatened by the modern world and its changing demographics. I'm struck, for example, by many right-wing conservatives in our country who seem to prefer policies that are less inclusive and more exclusive. That seems a bit reptilian to me, but who knows? Perhaps my reaction to these developments is reptilian in itself. In any event, I look forward to your future posts on this subject.
ReplyDeleteLove that reptilian/mammalian analogy. And the amygdala: I'm reminded of that book on psychopaths I read just before coming here. Now I see psychos everywhere...
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to this series.
Loved your comment, George, and thanks for your enthusiasm! I think there may be good reptilian and bad reptilian: good when it's a necessary escape hatch from the insanity of the modern world, a kind of automatic self-preservation mode; bad when it becomes all there is, at the expense of the more developed and more interesting potentialities of the mammalian and the prefrontal (the homo- erectian?) (Lots of reptilian round this neck of the woods, though — he said, condescendingly.)
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks to you too, Goat, for your participation!
Interesting. That C13 illustration (I wonder what the words say?)reminded me of one from the 1940s which I posted on my blog. You'll have to click on it and zoom in to read it:
ReplyDeletehttp://dominicrivron.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/workshop-of-head.html
I'll be interested to see where you go with this. I've got a bit behind in my post-reading this week, so, for now, I must go back and read that beautiful Rilke, which I've been wanting to do all week.
ReplyDeleteYes, I remember that illustration you posted, Dominic . . . and Susan, thanks for reading.
ReplyDeleteCool stuff. I remember studying about phrenology. It's fascinating. And something in our brains is leftover from the days of survival, and so we still focus on the negative, and fear.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first took the Myers-Briggs personality profile back in the 1980s (don't know if you're familiar with it), one of the four categories being thinking vs. feeling, I came out 0-50, thinking-feeling. Now I like to think of myself as a thinking person, but in that test, I was all feeling and no thinking. It mostly has to do (in the test) with how you respond to people. Rather than let that disturb me, I see it as a signal of what might need developing, strengthening. I guess I feel the world more than I see it!
I haven't done that test, Ruth — but I remember you mentioning it before. (BTW, I would take all such tests with a pinch of salt!) You should in no way be disturbed by the findings of such a test: they are not proper, scientific tests (how could they be?), only rough guides. Just look at Eysenck's IQ tests and how flawed they are and how one can 'learn' to do them . . .
ReplyDeleteFeeling the world as sensitively as you do is a wonderful gift.
Yes, you're right, Robert. I do take this test with a grain of salt, though it helped my husband and me understand how we functioned so differently in the world, being "opposites" in all four areas. That was a sort of relief, and I said, "No wonder!"
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