Myth 2: Some People are Left-Brained, Others are Right-Brained (50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology)

The human brain has two hemispheres, the right side is responsible for creative thinking, intuition, spontaneity, while the left brain is responsible for analytical, logical, linear thought.

You have probably heard about this dichotomy before. and how some people are either right-brained or left-brained. Numerous pop psychology tests have been created online to help you determine which one you are. And of course, this dichotomy is based on a truthful idea, but the facts have been greatly distorted.

We know that the brain works in a much more integrated way, and the two hemispheres are more similar than they are different, and that they communicate with each other. Pop psychologists have profited from bending the truth by writing best-selling books about how to enhance creativity by restricting left-brain functioning such as Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (1980) while others have used this idea to launch political campaigns against schools that only promote left-brained thinking.

Learning styles may depend on how the individual was trained but has nothing to do with the characteristics of either side of the brain. That is, the two sides don’t function very differently, and they communicate with each other if the left and right hemispheres are not disconnected from each other through injury or surgery.

Source: 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior, Scott O. Lilienfeld


If you are interested in reading books about unmasking human nature, consider reading The Dichotomy of the Self, a book that explores the great psychoanalytic and philosophical ideas of our time, and what they can reveal to us about the nature of the self.

"A gilded No is more satisfactory than a dry yes" - Gracian