Deep dive into the claims around emotional lateralisation of the human brain. Trigger Alert: This piece might ruffle some of your cherished assumptions.
What do you think of Sam Harris' book, Waking Up? He is a neuroscientist and he explains the right brain is specialized for direct, immediate and intuitive parallel processing perception, and spiritual experience. Left brain specialized for slower rationalization. This also lines up with the TED talk given by a neuroscientist Jill Bolt-Taylor, who had a spiritual experience as a result of a left-brain tumor.
And what do you think of neuroscientist Michael A. Persinger's research on this topic? I don't think anyone has gone as far as he has experimentally. His view is a bit different tho in that the left amygdala is specialized for bliss while the right amygdala is specialized for fear, but he agreed that the sense of self is left-brain, and emotional and mystical experiences are right brain (Harris says left brain is specifically specialized for anger)...
I am unclear which neuroscientists are considered mainstream or how representative any of these theories are.
Hello! Love all the questions. I mean Sam Harris is not a neuroscientist- while I know of the book I haven’t read it - I can assume he is taking and retelling the common trope found in other philosophical works - I think you’d struggle finding any neuroscientist making such claims which is telling. I mean they would jump on it if it were true, right? I can imagine that people can have personality changes or deep spiritual experiences or other as a result of an alteration of one of the hemispheres but does it proof the left brain/right brain specialisation? I will go now check all these other refs- I am curious!
I am not sure what you mean! Pascal - who co-wrote this piece with me - reviews in good detail different strands of research that might have led to those lines of thought but with up to date comes to the conclusion that overall and when outdated studies are not taken into account, there is no evidence to claim that there is lateralisation of complexity traits except the known ones such as the language and spatial orientation. The paper also lists the common pitfalls that might have led to those conjectures in the past - as not having controls, for example.
I guess he is not a practising neuroscientist, right? He is a philosophy writer mostly now also talking about lot about politics. He might have studied neuroscience but he does not have or work in a neuroscience lab, I don't think, right? I think ultimately, you will struggle finding a practising neuroscientist today who makes claims about the hemispheric specialisation of the brain (as in right vs left brain dichotomy). I hope that makes sense.
Hi Leslie. Thank you for reading. While it is a compelling narrative (that is why so many people fall in love with it), it is not supported by neuroscience. As explained a little bit in the piece above, the right brain/left brain dichotomy started off with some evidence of localised functions, mainly in the early years of affective neuroscience, but that was then extrapolated to complex brain functions and traits by non-neuroscientists to follow an interesting story line, but divorced from neuroscience backing. Furthermore, in the last 30 years, the technical capacity to explore the brain activation has made significant leaps and the generalised claims about hemispheric specialisation have been found to have no evidence, and have been de facto abandoned by neuroscience. Yet, they are still well and alive in psychotherapy surviving as a pseudoscience quirk( because we love nice stories, I am assuming). Having said that. It's hard, because I respect Iain McGilchrist intellectually and of course as a person, but you will struggle finding an active neuroscientist who backs up the claims around hemispheric dichotomy from the book. Happy to chat more if useful and hope this goes some way to answer the question. Ana 🙏
Yes I will admit to being one of those therapists who fell for the story - Iain wrote it so convincingly and referenced so many studies. I realize I can keep my love of the intuitive, creative, and dreamy aspects of ourselves without it needing to be about the brain. I appreciate your sincere effort to update and inform us all.
This 👉 "I realize I can keep my love of the intuitive, creative, and dreamy aspects of ourselves without it needing to be about the brain. I appreciate your sincere effort to update and inform us all." Spot on. How about neuroscience of dreaming? That must be a good one, right - not my speciality - but I know it is yours 😊
You're right -- there is a lot I can say about the neuroscience of dreaming, and yet so much that we don't know as well. I'm currently writing a book on the many fascinating hybrid states between dreaming, sleeping and waking -- things like lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis. For those who want to know more on this, I also recommend Patrick McNamara's 2023 book, The Neuroscience of Sleep and Dreams.
This was always one I loved to debunk when teaching. It’s not rooted in neuroscience, but it can be a good metaphor for something. Although I’m not sure we as a people can handle the metaphor without taking it literally (so it seems).
Hey Adina. Great question and thanks for reading. Before I answer, just want to ask for a permission from you to shoot this on notes, so others asking similar questions can benefit?
I guess the answer depends. For those that use this “right brain/left brain” narrative extensively in their practice, the implication is quite a significant one, right? Plus imagine the clean-up that would need to be done in psychotherapy literature🤪?! Wow.
To answer your question, I will ask you a question in return: would you use astrology as a way to psychoeducate someone and explain why they behave in a certain way and someone else in a different way? Or would you use the ‘theory of humors’ (a now obscure but once dominant theory on how certain body characteristics - four humors - are connected with personality traits and disease) with your clients trying to make them balance out the 4 humours that are out of balance in order to achieve a more fulfilled state of happiness or heal the trauma? Using the “right brain/left brain” explanations falls sadly into the same vein of explanations… Now I know most therapists use it with the best intention in the world believing that they are using the “cutting-edge science” to help their clients (because they read it in so many books or have had it taught in courses). But ultimately, using that paradigm equates essentially to using astrology, humors or any other un-scientific narrative. Only because neuroscience is attached to it seems to carry more credibility (unlike astrology or humors) + all the mystique!
Maybe the butterfly hug is a good example to try to unpack, as it is an ‘intervention’ that is often offered as a quick way to ‘rebalance’ the two hemispheres. I don’t know if you know it? Basically, folding the arms in a butterfly self-hug and alternating the touch of the right side and the left side of the body. It is supposed to ‘rebalance’ the two hemispheres and lead to more emotional regulation (I think!). TikTok is full of it and I know for a fact that it is used in psychotherapy settings as a ‘neuroscience-informed’ intervention. Yet, it’s an utter neurobollocks (that’s how I call neuro-myths). As explained in the blog piece, the two hemispheres work in coordinated ways all of the time and touching one side of the body is not going to magically switch on or off one side of the brain - I mean it is a bit ridiculous, when you think about it, right? It is very much ‘balancing of humors’ idea but only swapped the 4 humors to “right brain/left brain”. It is psychotherapy snake-oil.
The bottom line, for me, is to understand that using neuroscience in psychotherapy does not provide a silver bullet - which I think some people have hoped for - we still have to do the work.
And neuroscience to psychotherapy ‘translation’ is hard and unfortunately the territory has been occupied by lots of quasi-science. So all the work is yet to be done - although neuroscience has brought lots of insight into psychotherapy already, especially when it comes to emotional regulation, anxiety and PTSD (memory reconsolidation techniques come directly translationally from neuroscience research). And it’s exciting, because it is only the start. But we’ve got to make room for some actual neuroscience by cleaning up neurobollocks first, right? 😊
How’s this for an answer Adina? Feel free to push back 😉
Thanks for the detailed answer, Ana! I agree we must clear the field first of “neurobollocks” instead of building more on top of it. I’ll pay extra attention going forward to any practices that assume to be informed by this right/left hemisphere model.
As explained in detail in the piece, the papers that were indicating emotional laterlisation etc. are by and large outdated. Some findings have been taken out of context and totally blown out of proportion and became this big thing in psychotherapy that is totally divorced from any neuroscience reality. Thank you so much again for reading and engaging! 🙏
Hey Wyrd. And ammo you will have. We really wanted to go into the nitty gritty and to assess all different strands of evidence that is usually offered to support this hypothesis. As always, thanks for reading.
What do you think of Sam Harris' book, Waking Up? He is a neuroscientist and he explains the right brain is specialized for direct, immediate and intuitive parallel processing perception, and spiritual experience. Left brain specialized for slower rationalization. This also lines up with the TED talk given by a neuroscientist Jill Bolt-Taylor, who had a spiritual experience as a result of a left-brain tumor.
And what do you think of neuroscientist Michael A. Persinger's research on this topic? I don't think anyone has gone as far as he has experimentally. His view is a bit different tho in that the left amygdala is specialized for bliss while the right amygdala is specialized for fear, but he agreed that the sense of self is left-brain, and emotional and mystical experiences are right brain (Harris says left brain is specifically specialized for anger)...
I am unclear which neuroscientists are considered mainstream or how representative any of these theories are.
Hello! Love all the questions. I mean Sam Harris is not a neuroscientist- while I know of the book I haven’t read it - I can assume he is taking and retelling the common trope found in other philosophical works - I think you’d struggle finding any neuroscientist making such claims which is telling. I mean they would jump on it if it were true, right? I can imagine that people can have personality changes or deep spiritual experiences or other as a result of an alteration of one of the hemispheres but does it proof the left brain/right brain specialisation? I will go now check all these other refs- I am curious!
Could you clarify when you say he is NOT a neuroscientist? Because he is listed as a neuroscientist.
I am not sure what you mean! Pascal - who co-wrote this piece with me - reviews in good detail different strands of research that might have led to those lines of thought but with up to date comes to the conclusion that overall and when outdated studies are not taken into account, there is no evidence to claim that there is lateralisation of complexity traits except the known ones such as the language and spatial orientation. The paper also lists the common pitfalls that might have led to those conjectures in the past - as not having controls, for example.
I guess he is not a practising neuroscientist, right? He is a philosophy writer mostly now also talking about lot about politics. He might have studied neuroscience but he does not have or work in a neuroscience lab, I don't think, right? I think ultimately, you will struggle finding a practising neuroscientist today who makes claims about the hemispheric specialisation of the brain (as in right vs left brain dichotomy). I hope that makes sense.
I have seen tons of them make such claims even in this post..
I’m wondering what you think of Iain McGilchrist’s writings on the topic eg The Master and His Emissary?
Hi Leslie. Thank you for reading. While it is a compelling narrative (that is why so many people fall in love with it), it is not supported by neuroscience. As explained a little bit in the piece above, the right brain/left brain dichotomy started off with some evidence of localised functions, mainly in the early years of affective neuroscience, but that was then extrapolated to complex brain functions and traits by non-neuroscientists to follow an interesting story line, but divorced from neuroscience backing. Furthermore, in the last 30 years, the technical capacity to explore the brain activation has made significant leaps and the generalised claims about hemispheric specialisation have been found to have no evidence, and have been de facto abandoned by neuroscience. Yet, they are still well and alive in psychotherapy surviving as a pseudoscience quirk( because we love nice stories, I am assuming). Having said that. It's hard, because I respect Iain McGilchrist intellectually and of course as a person, but you will struggle finding an active neuroscientist who backs up the claims around hemispheric dichotomy from the book. Happy to chat more if useful and hope this goes some way to answer the question. Ana 🙏
Yes I will admit to being one of those therapists who fell for the story - Iain wrote it so convincingly and referenced so many studies. I realize I can keep my love of the intuitive, creative, and dreamy aspects of ourselves without it needing to be about the brain. I appreciate your sincere effort to update and inform us all.
This 👉 "I realize I can keep my love of the intuitive, creative, and dreamy aspects of ourselves without it needing to be about the brain. I appreciate your sincere effort to update and inform us all." Spot on. How about neuroscience of dreaming? That must be a good one, right - not my speciality - but I know it is yours 😊
You're right -- there is a lot I can say about the neuroscience of dreaming, and yet so much that we don't know as well. I'm currently writing a book on the many fascinating hybrid states between dreaming, sleeping and waking -- things like lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis. For those who want to know more on this, I also recommend Patrick McNamara's 2023 book, The Neuroscience of Sleep and Dreams.
Thank you and looking forward to your new book!
This was always one I loved to debunk when teaching. It’s not rooted in neuroscience, but it can be a good metaphor for something. Although I’m not sure we as a people can handle the metaphor without taking it literally (so it seems).
Hey Brittany. Thank you for reading🙏. This specific metaphor seems to have gotten out of hand - in psychotherapy world!
Thanks for this, Ana - really instructive. What are the implications for clinical practice, in your view?
Hey Adina. Great question and thanks for reading. Before I answer, just want to ask for a permission from you to shoot this on notes, so others asking similar questions can benefit?
Hey Adina, thank you for reading 🙏.
I guess the answer depends. For those that use this “right brain/left brain” narrative extensively in their practice, the implication is quite a significant one, right? Plus imagine the clean-up that would need to be done in psychotherapy literature🤪?! Wow.
To answer your question, I will ask you a question in return: would you use astrology as a way to psychoeducate someone and explain why they behave in a certain way and someone else in a different way? Or would you use the ‘theory of humors’ (a now obscure but once dominant theory on how certain body characteristics - four humors - are connected with personality traits and disease) with your clients trying to make them balance out the 4 humours that are out of balance in order to achieve a more fulfilled state of happiness or heal the trauma? Using the “right brain/left brain” explanations falls sadly into the same vein of explanations… Now I know most therapists use it with the best intention in the world believing that they are using the “cutting-edge science” to help their clients (because they read it in so many books or have had it taught in courses). But ultimately, using that paradigm equates essentially to using astrology, humors or any other un-scientific narrative. Only because neuroscience is attached to it seems to carry more credibility (unlike astrology or humors) + all the mystique!
Maybe the butterfly hug is a good example to try to unpack, as it is an ‘intervention’ that is often offered as a quick way to ‘rebalance’ the two hemispheres. I don’t know if you know it? Basically, folding the arms in a butterfly self-hug and alternating the touch of the right side and the left side of the body. It is supposed to ‘rebalance’ the two hemispheres and lead to more emotional regulation (I think!). TikTok is full of it and I know for a fact that it is used in psychotherapy settings as a ‘neuroscience-informed’ intervention. Yet, it’s an utter neurobollocks (that’s how I call neuro-myths). As explained in the blog piece, the two hemispheres work in coordinated ways all of the time and touching one side of the body is not going to magically switch on or off one side of the brain - I mean it is a bit ridiculous, when you think about it, right? It is very much ‘balancing of humors’ idea but only swapped the 4 humors to “right brain/left brain”. It is psychotherapy snake-oil.
The bottom line, for me, is to understand that using neuroscience in psychotherapy does not provide a silver bullet - which I think some people have hoped for - we still have to do the work.
And neuroscience to psychotherapy ‘translation’ is hard and unfortunately the territory has been occupied by lots of quasi-science. So all the work is yet to be done - although neuroscience has brought lots of insight into psychotherapy already, especially when it comes to emotional regulation, anxiety and PTSD (memory reconsolidation techniques come directly translationally from neuroscience research). And it’s exciting, because it is only the start. But we’ve got to make room for some actual neuroscience by cleaning up neurobollocks first, right? 😊
How’s this for an answer Adina? Feel free to push back 😉
Ana
Thanks for the detailed answer, Ana! I agree we must clear the field first of “neurobollocks” instead of building more on top of it. I’ll pay extra attention going forward to any practices that assume to be informed by this right/left hemisphere model.
As explained in detail in the piece, the papers that were indicating emotional laterlisation etc. are by and large outdated. Some findings have been taken out of context and totally blown out of proportion and became this big thing in psychotherapy that is totally divorced from any neuroscience reality. Thank you so much again for reading and engaging! 🙏
Absolutely! Thanks, Anna
🙏
Good write up and debunking. Nice to have some ammo the next time someone tells me about left-vs-right brain, so thanks.
Hey Wyrd. And ammo you will have. We really wanted to go into the nitty gritty and to assess all different strands of evidence that is usually offered to support this hypothesis. As always, thanks for reading.