Below is a quote from on article on the way society views left/right brained men. The article is by a researcher named Barbara Pytel-


Western society honors left brains, especially men. We hold them in high regard because they follow directions, do well on tests, sit still in school, seem to be organized, tend to be good business people, and are quite serious in nature. Right brains are honored in eastern society where creativity, empathy and spirituality are seen as important. While these traits are very well respected in eastern societies, it is very unfortunate to be a right-brained male in western society

any thoughts?

this would only matter to those who actually care about living up to societies standards....

The article is irrelevant to everyday living ...

It is a shame having any intelligence at all here!

Barbara Pytel sounds to me like a very narrow-minded researcher. To color everything in such simplistic terms is ignorant in and of itself. Should we give her credit for using her "right" or her "left" brain for this?

The idea that a person must either be completely logical (i.e. left-brained), or completely spontaneously intuitive (i.e. right-brained)is utter nonsense.

Just look around at the most famous scientists of the western world for example. They are credited, not merely for pure cut-and-dried logic, but also for their wonderfully creative insight.

So to pass the "Western world" off as being a culture that focuses on pure left-brained thinking is utter nonsense to begin with, and quite short-sighted.

A HEALTHY individual is one who can work with their WHOLE BRAIN, not with just half of it.

Now when it comes to western schools, I'll agree that those institutions are extremely lame. But they truly aren't even designed to make students think, on the contrary, they are designed to make students EARN a degree! They are more focused on COMPETITION than on teaching anything. But that has nothing to do with right or left braininess. It just has to do with the fact that educational institutions are ultimately a dog-eat-dog system designed to force people to compete to see who is best at regurgitating what they are taught.

I mean, when you think about the above quote, how is it any different than saying:

Respect my right to only use half my brain.



What's wrong with using your WHOLE brain?

The article STILL isn't any more relevant to life in the real world than it was before ...

as is ur primary photo

doesn't bother me. I have yet to see ANYTHING intelligent posted by Knight's Knight or whatever his name is - just ignore it and bask in the intelligence and warmth of good hearted people where u find it. OK?

There are some schools that stay away from that model. But when someone from the old, traditional model steps in - it's a chore to get him turned around to adopt the culture of a cooperative paradigm. I'm kinda going thru that now.

As for our researcher lady - in all fairness, I only posted a small bit of what she wrote. And yes, things are not always that extreme or dualistic. I think creativity is admired in all societies, but mostly if you make money also....jmho

I am curious about these diffrences in right-brained people as I fit that particular paradigm almost to a T........I hope that's OK

nuthin' if ur brain works that way. the brain tends to prefer one modality over the other, but there is a spectrum as you have already suggested it is not a matter of one or the other. Some folks do come pretty close to using both sides equally. my question is whether this is at all associated with ambedexterity?

ya, but ur beak is sexxy hunnie

Creativity is subjective.

I work as a software engineer and most of my colleagues would be considered highly intelligent, orderly, business folks.

I would challenge anyone to match the creativity of these folks against any artist.

I am sorry its merely a subjective cultural construct where we label artistic pursuits as highly creative and practical pursuits as less creative.

I have also been immersed in the artistic community, as an actor, a singer, and musician I have spent tons of time around artistic people and found that the vast majority of art is a hodge podge of previous concepts brought together with a spin that makes it appear new and unique, which is common to most human endeavors.

Cutting edge technologically sophisticated companies house the worlds most elite creative minds; and in a day to day encounter most people would not go out of their way to label these people as creative.

Cutting edge technology/science requires creativity in a way art never will. To be the first in a new revolutionary design/scientific-method is a challenge that requires hundreds and sometimes thousands of innovations to achieve.

New cutting edge and highly creative art will tend to have at most a handful of new ideas.

So I tend to think its a narrow view that holds the conclusions of the above mentioned research as poignant.

Regarding the creativity of "technically oriented" people...

I couldn't agree more. I too am a software engineer and in my 25 years experience in the field, the computer programmers I have known tend toward a high percentage of musicians. Of course that's just anecdotal evidence, and very possibly "confirmation biased" since I am an amateur musician myself.

I've found over the years that ladies love guys with a big 'beak' ... (ahem ...)

Ah-Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha!

I'm mortified!

Sweetest,

It looks like I might not be the only one who is bringing a wee bit of latent frustration to this conversation. I've been long fed up with the 'zero sum game' interpretation of the 'left/right brained' model - and I give props to Abra, Redonk, and Sky for addressing this. I hope you take none of this personally - its a great topic to propose.

I think the whole 'left/right brain' terminology is useful more on a metaphoric level than a literal level. Its not much more meaningful onto itself then yang/yin, or eastern/western - and less meaningful than analytical/intuitive or male/female. In all cases, we are simply grouping trends and giving them dichotomous labels. In none of these cases do the labels adequately reflect the underlying reality.

(from http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/10/the_left_brain_right_brain_myt.php)

The blog I linked to above discusses an optical illusion - the idea is that supposedly there is a correlation between which direction you see the dancer rotating, and which hemisphere you favor.

I'm posting this for science, and no other reason.

I can willfully choose to see her rotating in either direction comfortably. However, her shadow makes more sense optically when she's rotating counter-clockwise.

So if this were an actual video of a real event I would suggest that the evidence given by her shadow indicates that she must be rotating counter-clockwise.

Did they suggest which side of the brain favors which rotational direction? I'm just curious if the logical side of the brain would favor the more logical shadow? Or is it just that one side favors clockwise in general whilst the other side favors counter-clockwise?