Of Two Minds: A New Approach for Better Understanding Your Emotional Life (Hardcover)

Schiffer, a psychiatrist with a belief in talk therapy as well as
neuroscientific models of mental dysfunction, has come up with a new
model to explain anxiety, depression, and compulsive behaviour, based
on the idea that the two hemispheres of the brain actually have

distinct minds and personalities.

'Split brain' studies show is that there is a separate mind
in each hemisphere, capable of acting and thinking independently of
the other half. Even in 'ordinary' people with an intact corpus
callosum, one hemisphere or the other is dominant at any given time.

Schiffer suggests that when a traumatic experience is suffered,
particularly in childhood, one side of the brain may be affected by it
and arrested in 'emotional' black-and-white thinking, while the other
side may be relatively unaffected.

At any given time, one hemisphere or the other is in control. If the
traumatised hemisphere is always in control (or if both hemispheres
suffered equally from the trauma), the person will always appear
troubled. If the traumatised hemisphere is only intermittently in
control, the person will sometimes appear troubled and sometimes OK.
And if the 'mature' hemisphere is always in control, the person will
appear to be over the problem.

Even where the mature side is dominant, the troubled side may be
influencing behaviour out of the person's awareness - rather like
Freud's idea of the unconscious mind.

Schiffer found that by taking wrap-around safety goggles (the kind
that will fit over a person's glasses) and covering them in masking
tape so that light only comes in at one side of the field of vision,
he could get his clients to activate one side of the brain or the
other.

He found that often, the client's emotional responses, in terms of
anxiety and feeling in control, were quite different between sides.
This enabled him to identify the 'mature' side and the 'troubled'
side. Although a higher proportion of PTSD patients felt more distress
in their left brains, either hemisphere can be the 'troubled' one.

I have tried the lateralising goggles with one of my therapy clients and she
did report a significant difference in how she felt - one set of
goggles made her feel better, the other made her feel worse. She took
the 'good' set home so she can use them whenever she needs to
strengthen her 'mature' side.

Schiffer's experience with his clients suggests that the 'mature' side
can be encouraged to look after and support the 'troubled' side, and
that if the 'troubled' side 'looks through the eyes of' the 'mature'
side, it will start to feel better.

This book has many useful insights which I can apply to my work as a therapist and NLP trainer. An excellent and absorbing book.