Two People in One

Heard an interview with Jonah Lehrer on his new book, Imagine.  It's about how creativity arises from our brains.

         The discussion veered to the two brain hemispheres and whether indeed the right hemisphere is the creative side, the left, the down-to-earth side.

         Lehrer said that we misunderstand the separation of the two hemispheres.  We need both in order to think well.  The left side is good at details.  The right side good at seeing the big picture.

         It’s as if there were two people up there in my head, talking with each other.  Suppose I’m driving to visit a friend somewhere I’ve never been in my home town of Chicago:  My left brain pays attention to the streets I must travel, which way to turn when I reach one of them, the number I’m looking for on the target street.  My right brain holds the big picture of Chicago: which neighborhoods I’m traversing, whether I am near or far from the Lake, whether the neighborhood I have arrived at is attractive.  For instance do the restaurants look interesting?  Or are the buildings architecturally harmonious?  Or is my friend lucky to live here, or unfortunate to live here?

         In fact, the two brain halves need each other to have a complete experience, to tell the story of the experience, to store it away for later reference.  What a wonder!

         And how do we know this?  Some answers next time…