Left Brain vs. Right Brain

You can think of the brain having two hemispheres, one on the left and one on the right. The left side of the brain typically controls language and verbal functions, and is considered the analytical half of the brain. The right brain uses spatial and perceptual processing which tends to be as complex or even more complex than the left side. It’s also interesting to note that the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, while the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body. If you have a stroke on the right side of the brain, the left side of your body will be the most traumatized.

The left side of the brain will process visual information differently than the right side. It will create tasks, plan, verbalize, rationalize, and analyze. It’s what Julia Cameron in “The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity” calls the Logic Brain. She states that “logic brain is our brain of choice in the Western Hemisphere. It is the categorical brain. It thinks in a neat, linear fashion. As a rule, logic brain perceives the world according to known categories.”

In contrast, the right side of the brain processes information differently. In that hemisphere, we deal with images using our mind’s eye. It’s the area of the brain that uses metaphors and puts different things together. The right side of the brain is where we get our epiphanies and new ideas. Cameron calls the right hemisphere the Artist brain:

Artist brain is our inventor, our child, our very own personal absent-minded professor. Artist brain says ‘Hey! That is so neat!’ It puts odd things together (boat equals wave and walker).’… Artist brain is our creative, holistic brain. It thinks in patterns and shadings. It sees a fall forest and thinks: Wow! Leaf bouquet! Pretty! Gold-gilt-shimmery-earthskin-king’s-carpet! Artist brain is associative and freewheeling. It makes new connections, yoking together images to invoke meaning.

Unfortunately, through years of schooling, parents who try to tell us to do the right thing and become programmers/doctors/lawyers/scientists, and society as a whole, we have become left-brain focused. It’s an analytical world out there. In some cases, this is good. We need engineers who can think logically and build functional products. We need accountants who can compute our taxes. These functional tasks are necessary and it makes the world run. However, in order for the world to evolve, we need to innovate. This means engaging our right brain, our Artist brain, to become more creative, so we can create new connections and get our flashes of insight. Betty Edwards in “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” says

One definition of a creative person is someone who can process in new ways information directly at hand – the ordinary sensory data available to all of us. A writer uses words, a musician notes, an artist visual perceptions, and all need some knowledge of the techniques of their crafts. But a creative individual intuitively sees possibilities for transforming ordinary data into a new creation, transcendent over the mere raw materials.

My assertion is that the world needs more right-brain thinkers. For years, our schools have been telling us to fit in, think logically, be predictable, obey instructions. This has produced a world of employees who fit in, think logically, be predictable, and obey instructions. That isn’t what the innovative world needs. We need artists. Artists who use their right-brain to create something that changes others (hopefully for the better).