WildeRose Guest House
Rogers, KY
October 28, 2011
5:16 p.m.
How Are Decisions Made? (Part I)
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” --Yogi Berra
One of the main themes of this Sole 2 Soul adventure -- which began last March as a celebration of the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day, and officially ended on September 21, 2011, the International Day of Peace -- has been the issue of decision-making. As an individual, as a pair of partners, as a group, as a family, a tribe, a nation, the same question always begs for clarification: How are decisions made? When faced with a choice of paths forward, how do we eliminate all but the one we select? How do we settle on the one that shows the most promise?
It’s complicated, as brain research is showing us.
I have often assumed the popular notion that our human brains, divided into left and right hemispheres somehow affect the decision-making process. And I must confess I have often greatly oversimplified the matter by assuming the left brain to be associated with the more rational, linear, focused kind of thinking, hence “more masculine.” and the right brain to be associated with the more emotional, global, and intuitive kind of thinking, hence “more feminine.”
For the purposes of our cause -- i.e. women as equally valued decision makers, whose full participation and contributions are essential now to resolve our local and global challenges -- it was convenient to say that if there was an imbalance in the world, it was because we had become too weighted in the direction of left-brain thinking. Therefore, we were advocating a shift in the balance, loosely identifying this as a greater emphasis on “feminine values,” and in an even more mystical and dramatic way calling for “The Return of the Divine Feminine.”
I have recently seen a presentation which casts a great deal of light onto this subject, and I invite you to consider it as part of this blog presentation, which I am calling Part I of a two-part series. Instead of reading anything more I have to say, please take 12 minutes to view the TED presentation by psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist: “The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World.” McGilchrist, a psychiatrist makes the case in a very engaging and humorous way -- supported by brilliant graphics -- that left-brain thinking has tended to take precedence. A very notable imbalance has resulted, which some might call a cultural bias.
His summary conclusion works to correct our previous oversimplifications. He says, “For imagination you need both [hemispheres] and for reason you need both hemispheres as well,” implying that both imagination and reason require cooperative interaction of the whole brain.
He does not make the case that one kind of thinking is “masculine” and the other is “feminine,” for the fact remains that both men and women have both attributes. But he does state that the divided brain offers us two versions of the world, and that there has been a tendency to value one kind of thinking and hence (my inference) one kind of decision-making over the other.
After having viewed the presentation several times, I am struck by the fact that all of the cartoons (with only a couple of exceptions) are of male figures -- doctors, patients, historical figures, etc. I am also struck by the fact, supported by the research, that the right hemisphere tends to lack a voice with which to express and project its views, whereas the left hemisphere is more comfortable with the control of the media of conceptualization and expression.
He concludes with a striking quotation from Albert Einstein: “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant but has forgotten the gift.”
This blog will be continued in Part II, and I heartily invite comment.
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