Left and Right Sides of the Brain

Some notes from Betty Erward's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

During the 1960s, further research of the corpus callosum caused scientists to postulate a view of the relative capabilities of the two halves of the human brain: that both hemispheres are involved in higher cognitive functioning, with each half of the brain specialised in complementary fashion for different modes of thinking, both highly complex.

The main theme to emerge... is that there appear to be two modes of thinking, verbal and nonverbal, represented rather separately in the left and right hemispheres, respectively, and that our educational system, as well as science in general, tends to neglect the nonverbal form of intellect. What it comes down to is that modern society discriminates against the right hemisphere.

Roger Spery - 1973

Further evidence accumulated showed that the mode of the left hemisphere is verbal and analytic, while that of the right is nonverbal and global. New evidence found by Jerre Levy in her doctoral studies showed that the mode of processing used by the right brain is rapid, complex,whole-pattern, spatial and perceptual - processing that is not only different from but comparable in complexity to the left brain's verbal, analytic mode. It was also found that the two modes of processing interfere with each other, stimulating maximal performance.

Two Ways of Knowing

Along with the opposite connotations of left and right in our language, concepts of the duality, or two sidedness, of human nature and thoughts have been postulated by philosophers, teachers and scientists from many different times ans cultures. The key idea is that there are two parallel "ways of knowing".

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