![]() Cover of the first edition | |
Author | Fredric Schiffer |
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Language | English |
Genre | Psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, philosophy of mind |
Publisher | The Free Press (an imprint of Simon & Schuster); 2nd edition: self-published |
Publication date | 1998; 2nd, revised edition: 2021 |
Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
Pages | 288 |
ISBN | 978-0684854243 |
Of Two Minds: The Revolutionary Science of Dual-Brain Psychology is a book written by the American psychiatrist Fredric Schiffer (MD degree in 1971) [1] wherein he proposes that each person behaves as if there are two minds within the person, and that by recognizing and relating to the two separate minds, the therapist can promote healing and understanding of problems such as depression, anxiety, addictive behavior and delusional thoughts. [2] The author writes that by "two minds in one person" [3] he means that a "part of an individual ...has a unique set of memories, motivations, and behaviors alongside another part of him which has a different unique (though possibly similar) set of memories, motivations and behaviors." (Schiffer 2nd edition, 2021, p.30) The author locates a "mind" in each of the two physical halves (hemispheres) of the brain. [4] and he "maintains that one hemisphere can be more immature than the other and that this imbalance leads to different mental disorders". [5] During his counseling, as an exercise he has his patients cover all of one eye, and the inner half of the other eye, which the author feels selectively stimulates one cerebral hemisphere more than the other – activating the thoughts and feelings of that hemisphere – which allows one to "'talk' to each half of the brain separately, to learn which is less mature, and to bring the two hemispheres into harmony". [6]
In the early 1960s, the team of the neurosurgeon Joseph Bogen, the neuropsychologist Roger Sperry, and the "psychobiology" graduate student Michael Gazzaniga performed psychological experiments on patients who for medical treatment had undergone "split-brain surgery" which cuts the corpus callosum and thus severs the main link between the two sides of the brain known as the cerebral hemispheres. [7] [8] [9] Bogen related that some researchers regard that following the surgery of "splitting of the brain," a "single mind is cut into two but that ...it is abnormal to have two brains," meaning that the surgery creates an artificial situation which does not exist in normal people, but others feel that "every person is born with two brains but because the two sides get along so well, people simply have the illusion of one mind." [10]
In his book Of Two Minds Schiffer "enters the fray" by giving his research findings and implications of his theory of each person having a "dual brain."
In the preface to the book, the author relates a case from the 1970s where a university student he was counseling for anxiety and depression seemed to display one personality which was "more mature and healthier" and another personality which was "emotionally immature." [11] The author then relates that when he had started to undergo psychoanalysis by Elvin Semrad as part of his psychiatric training that the author felt that he too had "two distinct parts." [12]
The author writes that in 1995 he read about research by Werner Wittling which described a technique of how a movie could be shown just to one hemisphere in "intact," normal people – meaning in those who had not had "split-brain" surgery. Wittling found that films shown to the right side of the brain "often elicited a stronger emotional and physical response than when shown to the left brain." [13] In what then became a "eureka" moment for Schiffer, he tried to perform a "home version" of Wittling's experiment simply by covering all of one eye, and the inner half of the other eye. Such a covering of the eyes is known to first send what is being seen to the opposite side of the brain; for example, covering all of the right eye and the inner half of the left eye first sends the image seen to the opposite side of the brain, in this case to the right hemisphere. Later that same day, Schiffer tried this method with several of his counseling patients. For the first patient that day, when seeing from only the extreme left, the patient "became a bit agitated and said, 'Oh, my God!' 'What's that?' [Schiffer said.] I [Schiffer] had no idea what he meant. [The patient said] 'I have all my anxiety back.'" [13] And then when covering the eyes so that the patient saw only from the extreme right, the patient immediately felt better.
In the first three chapters, Schiffer discusses more recent "split-brain" studies, and studies in patients with intact brains using "lateralizing" devices (which first show an image to only one hemisphere), as well as other tests to assess brain activity such as the Wada test, electroencephalogram (EEG), PET scan and functional MRI scan.
The author writes that the "aim of dual-brain therapy is to mend the archaic, destructive ideas and emotions of the mind on the troubled side, to teach it that it is safer and more valuable than it learned during some traumatic experience." [14] The author feels that "free association" relates to "feelings or ideas coming from the immature side" of the brain, with the "interpretations" by the analyst as being the "deciphering of the thoughts of the...immature mind," and that "transference" is the "relationship between...[the] immature mind and the therapist." [4]
In these chapters the author deals with cases of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), "nervous breakdown" (psychotic episode), cocaine addiction, and the psychological aspects of heart attack. A feature throughout these chapters is that Schiffer provides transcripts of recordings of counseling sessions as the patient speaks as one side of the visual field is covered, and then the opposite visual field is covered, which Schiffer believes represents the thoughts and feelings of each separate side of the brain as brought out by the selective stimulation of one side of the brain.
This chapter is a summary of the author's work of "Dual-Brain Psychology" and how to practically apply it to one's own situation. Further case studies are given.
Here, in the first edition of his book from 1998, the author presents other scientific studies which he is planning to perform to evaluate "Dual-Brain Psychology."
In the second edition, published in 2021, the author gives a "Preface to the 2nd Edition" which traces how his work, research and thinking have developed since his original edition twenty-three years earlier. The first and second edition of Schiffer's Of Two Minds are almost word-for-word the same.
The subtitle for the American edition is "The Revolutionary Science of Dual-Brain Psychology." The subtitle for the British edition is "A New Approach for Better Understanding and Improving Your Emotional Life." Both editions were published by imprints of Simon and Schuster. The subtitle for the second edition is simply "Dual-Brain Psychology."
The book was also published in a German translation in 2007 by the publisher VAK. The title in German is Eine Brille für die Seele: Die neue Dual-Brain-Psychologie und ihre Anwendung bei Ängsten, Konflikten und Belastungen ("Glasses for the Soul: The New Dual-brain Psychology and Its Application to Fears, Conflicts and Stress"). [15]
Schiffer writes in the preface to the second edition of his book that his "work was not being widely appreciated by the Academy of scientists," referring to those in academic research and teaching (Schiffer 2nd edition, 2021, p. 8). The first edition received an endorsement from Candace Pert (deceased in 2013), a PhD pharmacologist who did research in neuroscience. She wrote that "Dr. Schiffer rivals Freud in his revolutionary theories on understanding the human psyche." [16] In the second edition, two others are listed as giving their endorsement for the content of the first edition: the neurosurgeon Joseph Bogen (deceased in 2005) wrote that the book is "wonderfully readable and well-informed, this is the best book ever on the social and psychiatric implications of the split brain research" and Bessel van der Kolk, a psychiatrist known for his work in post-traumatic stress disorder, wrote that Schiffer's book "provides the reader with a lucid exposé of the evolving understanding of the dual mind/brains that we all possess." (Schiffer 2nd edition, 2021, p.3)
A significant negative review was published in 1998 in the journal Nature by Chris McManus, a British physician and neuroscientist specializing in handedness and cerebral lateralization, [17] who basically discounted every main point which Schiffer presented, but the major argument is that Schiffer's theory is an "extension of hemisphericity, the dubious concept...." [18]
In The New England Journal of Medicine, the research psychiatrist Robert M. A. Hirschfeld, MD published a review in the year 1999 wherein he stated that Schiffer's book was "bold, interesting and ambitious," and "breaks new ground." [19] [20]
Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific field that is concerned with the study of the biological processes and aspects that underlie cognition, with a specific focus on the neural connections in the brain which are involved in mental processes. It addresses the questions of how cognitive activities are affected or controlled by neural circuits in the brain. Cognitive neuroscience is a branch of both neuroscience and psychology, overlapping with disciplines such as behavioral neuroscience, cognitive psychology, physiological psychology and affective neuroscience. Cognitive neuroscience relies upon theories in cognitive science coupled with evidence from neurobiology, and computational modeling.
Roger Wolcott Sperry was an American neuropsychologist, neurobiologist, cognitive neuroscientist, and Nobel laureate who, together with David Hunter Hubel and Torsten Nils Wiesel, won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his work with split-brain research. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Sperry as the 44th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.
Split-brain or callosal syndrome is a type of disconnection syndrome when the corpus callosum connecting the two hemispheres of the brain is severed to some degree. It is an association of symptoms produced by disruption of, or interference with, the connection between the hemispheres of the brain. The surgical operation to produce this condition involves transection of the corpus callosum, and is usually a last resort to treat refractory epilepsy. Initially, partial callosotomies are performed; if this operation does not succeed, a complete callosotomy is performed to mitigate the risk of accidental physical injury by reducing the severity and violence of epileptic seizures. Before using callosotomies, epilepsy is instead treated through pharmaceutical means. After surgery, neuropsychological assessments are often performed.
The brain is the central organ of the human nervous system, and with the spinal cord makes up the central nervous system. The brain consists of the cerebrum, the brainstem and the cerebellum. It controls most of the activities of the body, processing, integrating, and coordinating the information it receives from the sense organs, and making decisions as to the instructions sent to the rest of the body. The brain is contained in, and protected by, the skull bones of the head.
In the philosophy of mind, neuroscience, and cognitive science, a mental image is an experience that, on most occasions, significantly resembles the experience of "perceiving" some object, event, or scene but occurs when the relevant object, event, or scene is not actually present to the senses. There are sometimes episodes, particularly on falling asleep and waking up, when the mental imagery may be dynamic, phantasmagoric, and involuntary in character, repeatedly presenting identifiable objects or actions, spilling over from waking events, or defying perception, presenting a kaleidoscopic field, in which no distinct object can be discerned. Mental imagery can sometimes produce the same effects as would be produced by the behavior or experience imagined.
Robert Evan Ornstein was an American psychologist, researcher and author.
Betty Edwards is an American art teacher and author best known for her 1979 book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. She taught and did research at the California State University, Long Beach, until she retired in the late 1990s. While there, she founded the Center for the Educational Applications of Brain Hemisphere Research.
The longitudinal fissure is the deep groove that separates the two cerebral hemispheres of the vertebrate brain. Lying within it is a continuation of the dura mater called the falx cerebri. The inner surfaces of the two hemispheres are convoluted by gyri and sulci just as is the outer surface of the brain.
Michael S. Gazzaniga is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the USA, where he heads the new SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. He is one of the leading researchers in cognitive neuroscience, the study of the neural basis of mind. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Academy of Sciences.
Joseph E. Bogen was an American neurophysiologist who specialized in split brain research and focused on theories of consciousness. He was a clinical professor of neurosurgery at the University of Southern California, Adjunct Professor of Psychology at UCLA, and a visiting professor at Caltech.
The lateralization of brain function is the tendency for some neural functions or cognitive processes to be specialized to one side of the brain or the other. The median longitudinal fissure separates the human brain into two distinct cerebral hemispheres, connected by the corpus callosum. Although the macrostructure of the two hemispheres appears to be almost identical, different composition of neuronal networks allows for specialized function that is different in each hemisphere.
William Hirstein is an American philosopher primarily interested in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, metaphysics, cognitive science, and analytic philosophy. He is a professor of philosophy at Elmhurst University.
Elkhonon Goldberg is a neuropsychologist and cognitive neuroscientist known for his work in hemispheric specialization and the "novelty-routinization" theory.
Jerre Levy is an American psychologist and researcher of the brain. She has studied the relationship between the cerebral hemispheres and visual-oriented versus language-oriented tasks in split-brain surgery patients.
In human neuroanatomy, brain asymmetry can refer to at least two quite distinct findings:
In neuroscience, functional specialization is a theory which suggests that different areas in the brain are specialized for different functions.
The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World is a 2009 book written by psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist that deals with the specialist hemispheric functioning of the brain. The differing world views of the right and left brain have, according to the author, shaped Western culture since the time of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, and the growing conflict between these views has implications for the way the modern world is changing. In part, McGilchrist's book, which is the product of twenty years of research, reviews the evidence of previous related research and theories, and based on this and cultural evidence, the author arrives at his own conclusions.
Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century is a 2007 psychological book by Edward Francis Kelly, Emily Williams Kelly, Adam Crabtree, Alan Gauld, Michael Grosso, and Bruce Greyson. It attempts to bridge contemporary cognitive psychology and mainstream neuroscience with "rogue phenomena", which the authors argue exist in near-death experiences, psychophysiological influence, automatism, memory, genius, and mystical states.
The left-brain interpreter is a neuropsychological concept developed by the psychologist Michael S. Gazzaniga and the neuroscientist Joseph E. LeDoux. It refers to the construction of explanations by the left brain hemisphere in order to make sense of the world by reconciling new information with what was known before. The left-brain interpreter attempts to rationalize, reason and generalize new information it receives in order to relate the past to the present.
Dual consciousness is a hypothesis or concept in neuroscience. It is proposed that it is possible that a person may develop two separate conscious entities within their one brain after undergoing a corpus callosotomy. The idea first began circulating in the neuroscience community after some split-brain patients exhibited alien hand syndrome (AHS), which led some scientists to believe that there must be two separate consciousnesses within the brain's left and right hemispheres in competition with one another once the corpus callosum is severed.