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THE INTERPLAY OF THE TWO HEMISPHERES OF THE BRAIN IN PSYCHOANALYSIS

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Abstract

Several authors have written intriguingly about the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Each hemisphere perceives the world differently, impacting that which it looks upon and reinforcing our particular world view. Notably, the left hemisphere, has always been assumed to be the dominant hemisphere, but only because it has language and is so adept at formulating arguments. The detached mode of the left hemisphere, while useful and necessary to get distance, is no more real than the engaged, imaginative approach of the right hemisphere. Having written about self-sufficiency as a defense against feeling alone and helpless, I now consider these rational, problem solving, answer generating, and planning activities as products of the left hemisphere. The approach that I am suggesting is of calling our patients’ attention to how their left hemisphere overpowers the new, more uncertain voice of the right hemisphere just after it speaks in a session.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Training and Supervising Analyst, Minnesota Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, 825 Nicollet Mall, Suite 845, Minneapolis, MN, 55402, USA

    Joan Sacks Lentz

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  1. Joan Sacks Lentz
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Correspondence to Joan Sacks Lentz.

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Address correspondence to Joan Sacks Lentz, Ph.D., 825 Nicolett Mall, Suite 845; Minneapolis, MN 55402 USA.

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Lentz, J.S. THE INTERPLAY OF THE TWO HEMISPHERES OF THE BRAIN IN PSYCHOANALYSIS. Am J Psychoanal 78, 217–230 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-018-9145-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-018-9145-6

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