Brain and Psyche. Introduction
If you were to hold the brain in both hands, the first thing you would notice is the fact that the cerebrum consists of two halves. For several centuries, if not millennia, humans have been interested in whether these two brain hemispheres perform different functions. Even the Egyptians observed that injury to one hemisphere resulted in paralysis of the contralateral body half.
If human beings and all living animals had no coordinates – front/back, left/right, vertical/horizontal, north/south, east/west, down/up, past/future – no one would be able to orient themselves in space and time. This form of dualism is also reflected in the structure of our body, especially in the structure of the brain.
The abstract concept of “conflict” is the product of such dualism. It arises, so to speak, in the tension between plus and minus, between two opposites. Both destructive and creative forces arise from the opposition of two counteracting poles.
The question that has occupied some psychiatrists and neurologists is whether there are differences in mental functions between the two hemispheres. Karl-Gustav Jung already observed symbolic differences attributed to the left and right sides of the body.
Neurophysiological Research
The examination of the psychological and neurophysiological functions of the brain uses the following methods:
- Interviewing people who have suffered brain injuries.
- Electric stimulation of various brain areas.
- Interviewing and psychological testing of patients who have undergone corpus callosotomy surgery.
- Studies using Electroencephalography (EEG). Brain waves of both hemispheres can be compared.
- Interviewing after injection of various substances (such as anesthetics) into the left or right carotid artery that supply blood to the respective brain hemisphere.
- Use of non-invasive techniques such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET), which involves injecting a radioactive substance, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
Brain Research after Commissurotomy
In the early 1940s, a procedure called commissurotomy, which involved the severing of the corpus callosum, was frequently performed in cases of severe epilepsy. Surgeons were surprised to find that patients who underwent this procedure behaved normally afterwards. One hypothesis was that the corpus callosum only had a purely mechanical connecting function between the two hemispheres.
Left versus Right Brain Hemisphere
In the 1950s and 60s, Roger Sperry at the University of Chicago and later at the California Institute of Technology, focused on this area of research. Sperry discovered that humans have “two minds,” one form of consciousness located in the left hemisphere, and the other in the right.
He found that the left hemisphere is specialized in language, analytical, and causal thinking, while the right is specialized in holistic thinking (the ability to bring different impressions to “a common denominator”).
Interestingly, commissurotomized patients were able to write with their right hand but not draw, and vice versa with their left hand.
Analytical versus Holistic Brain Function and Its Psychological Impact
There are further tests showing that the left hemisphere is better in the use of language, logical reasoning, and the right hemisphere is superior to the left in tasks such as perception and construction. For example, the right hemisphere is involved in recognizing faces and composing fragmented information into a whole concept, while the left hemisphere is better at analyzing and fragmenting information and creating temporal sequences. It should be noted that an obsessive personality with a strong tendency towards order and perfectionism signifies an emphasis on left-hemispheric function. Listening to music, playing music, and painting are right-hemispheric activities. In the relaxed state of the patient’s electroencephalogram (EEG), a so-called alpha rhythm (waves of 8-10 Hz, i.e., 8-10 waves/second) is typical. When the subject is told to concentrate on a task, the suppression of this rhythm occurs.
Rational Versus Intuitive Function
Localized disappearance of alpha rhythms is an indication of brain activity in that area. Using this technique, it has been found that people who had to concentrate on mathematical or analytical tasks developed suppression of alpha rhythms in the left hemisphere. Tasks such as painting, listening to music, or thinking generated suppression of alpha rhythms in the right hemisphere. A Californian psychologist, Robert Ornstein, discovered a difference between the rational function of the left hemisphere and the intuitive function of the right. He believes that Western culture emphasizes the left hemisphere (i.e., logical, analytical, direct, causal thinking) while Eastern thinking (i.e., more diffuse, synthetic, and tolerant of paradoxical ideas) is right-hemispheric. Ornstein’s hypothesis has been confirmed by other researchers who suggest that human thinking occurs simultaneously on two different pathways: digital encoding (discursive, verbal, and logical) and analog encoding (non-discursive, non-verbal, and eidetic).
Primary and Secondary Thinking Process
This concept is almost identical to Freud’s idea that we have two modes of thinking, which he called “primary and secondary processes of thinking”.
The secondary process of thinking is logical and develops only at the time of language development, while the primary process of thinking is relatively unorganized, primitive, “magical”, undifferentiated, controlled by emotions, archaic, and imprecise.
Evolutionary Brain Hemispheric Specialization
The question that must be asked is: why did the two halves of the brain specialize during evolution?
If a commissurotomized chimpanzee were asked where he wants to go, he would point in different directions with his left and right hand. The same question asked of a commissurotomized human would be answered unambiguously. He would point in one direction with his right hand.
David Washdorn and David Allen Hamburg assume that left-hemispheric dominance emerged as an evolutionary adaptation and reflects the new tasks that the new, right-handed, tool- and weapon-using, speaking animal developed.
Left Cerebral Imperialism
Cerebral imperialism: It can be assumed that left-hemispheric emphasis exists in all cultures, with the Western civilization being extremely so. A deliberate, rationalistic way of thinking is literally drilled into children. This kind of thinking begins in school, with emphasis on areas such as writing, reading, and arithmetic. Activities like art, dance, and music are considered leisure activities. Education reflects the society’s leading obsession. Cultures like ours, which emphasize the importance of rational analytical thinking with a higher value placed on the material, automatically produce a “left-hemispheric imperialism.” The phenomenon of dissociation (separation) of the left from the right hemisphere was already described by Sperry (1968): as it seems, the left hemisphere is little involved most of the time with the activities of the right hemisphere and is also capable of suppressing the activity of the right hemisphere.
Reserch on Psyche and Brain in Individuals after Stroke
Anyone who has experience with stroke patients knows that left hemisphere strokes are accompanied by conscious feelings of loss and grief.
Strokes in the right hemisphere, on the other hand, often go unnoticed (neglect).
In such cases, even the paralyzed contralateral side, i.e. the left side of the patient, is often neglected. Patients frequently deny having any deficits in their bodies, and in extreme cases, such patients may even request surgical removal of their paralyzed left leg or left arm.
In patients who have suffered a right hemisphere insult, an unconscious grief reaction can be detected using psychoanalytic methods. The right hemisphere is responsible for the mechanism of symbolization described by Freud. If the unconscious has a place in the brain, it is certainly the right hemisphere.
EEG Research
Neurobiological research shows that EEG activity in the right hemisphere is more pronounced during sleep than in the left hemisphere. Wilder Penfield was able to induce dreams and visual hallucinations by stimulating the right hemisphere during neurosurgical operations. The stimuli of the left hemisphere did not show such effects.
Moreover, patients who underwent commissurotomy were no longer able to reproduce their dreams.
Freudian and Jungian psychology. Brain and Psyche. The Hemispheric Dominance
Dr. Ernest Rossi, a psychologist from Malibu, California, made a very apt remark: The division between synthetic thinking represented by the right hemisphere and analytical thinking of the left directly corresponds to the division between the two psychotherapeutic schools, that is, Freud’s approach and Jung’s approach. While the former has prevailed, the latter remains in the shadows in the field of psychology.
Carl Gustav Jung observed: “The intellect has no difficulty in analyzing the unconscious as a passive entity, in contrast: such an approach corresponds to our rational attitude. The approach of letting the unconscious go its own way and considering unconscious perception as reality is beyond the ability of the average European”. In this sense, neurosis is a self-splitting. The healing process means creating a “wholeness”. A conscious wholeness can only arise through a union of ego consciousness and the realm of the Self.