In the 19th century early brain researchers found out that the brain consists of two halves with the corpus callosum in the middle and that certain stimuli are either mostly or exclusively processed by one or the other half and that in general one or the other half of the brain and its primary way of functioning were having a strong effect on the individual human being. It was observed that the left hemisphere controlled the right side of the body and that right hemisphere the left. In the contemporary system of values the left half of the brain then was considered the masculine, superior half, whereas the right half was considered inferior and feminine…
The theory was that particularly women, savages, children, criminal and mad people were ruled by their right half of the brain whereas the good, decent men of course were all controlled by the left side of their brain…
Even our brain needs balance
Even though neurology discovered in the course of the years that the processing of stimuli couldn´t always be divided that easily this model of the brain hemispheres had a great influence on psychology and to this day on neuro-economy. Finally there was a valid explanation for the dominating use of the right or left hand, the differences between scientifically and artistically gifted people right down to “why men can´t cook noodles, watch sports and entertain children at the same time” (men think and act in a linear fashion) and women can´t pack a trunk (women have a bad eye for distance and cannot see well three dimensionally)…
Left order, right chaos?
The left hemisphere is used when we think, plan and learn, while the right hemisphere is active when we feel, follow the flow and are creative. The list of classifications is endless and would make this article way too long. But if one has grasped this polarity one understands really quickly if something has a rather rather male/masculine which means “leftbrain” or female/femine and “rightbrain” quality.
A personal disposition
The model of the brainhalves has also increased our tolerance for each other – this difference in “brain-orientation” is just as given at birth as the sign of the zodiac and the mothertongue…. One has to become active in order to change these dispositions.
One of the reasons why this model was so successful was that long before the scientific proof for this polarity came, people had already been orienting themselves intuitively by it. It is as if we have a quantum psychological sense that allows us to feel how much masculinity a man needs or how much femininity makes up a woman… Only when we talk about it and want to explain it we get often caught up in the electrical fences of states of mind and prejudices. Then the tender waves become acid particles and where there was undifferentiated unity there is now differentiated hostility, for it is really hard to describe something in contrast to something else without appearing to be judgmental. Fortunately we never give up and sometimes this “quadrature of the circle” is achieved and amazing things come of it: like genius inventions, magnificent music and a lot of humour.
