Of Two Minds: A New Approach for Better Understanding Your Emotional Life - Softcover

Schiffer, Fredric

Softcover

ISBN 10: 067103314X ISBN 13: 9780671033149

Publisher: Pocket Books, 2000

Synopsis

Most people experience themselves as two-sided, but have you ever wondered if there are two minds in each of us? This text offers evidence that each side of the brain possesses an autonomous, distinct personality, and illustrates how their interaction determines our psychological nature.

About this title

From the Publisher

MEETING OF THE MINDS
Most people experience themselves as two-sided: One side seems mature and stable, and the other emotional and impulsive. However, have you ever wondered if there really are two minds in each of us? If so, do traumatic as well as ordinary experiences affect the way our minds grow and interact? According to Frederic Schiffer, a leading Harvard psychiatrist and researcher, advances in science prove what many of us have always believed is true: We are of two minds, each one with a different degree of maturity, and each on is associated with the left or right side of the brain. This brilliant, provocative book illustrates how the interaction of these two minds – whether they sabotage each other or work in harmony – actually determines our psychological nature and ultimately the emotional problems or progress we may experience in life.

Drawing on his own twenty-five years of research of the brain and behaviour, Schiffer gives us overwhelming evidence that each side of our brain possesses an autonomous, distinct personality – with its own set of memories, motivations and behaviours. In working with his patients, Schiffer discovered that strategically altering someone’s visual field could positively or negatively affect that person’s sense of well being. He shows how using this technique of visual stimulation can activate the specific regions of the brain that harbour both traumatic and joyful memories. This dramatic breakthrough demonstrates how it is possible to access, isolate, and work with the memories encoded on one side of the brain.

Dr Schiffer’s dual-brain approach has yielded remarkable results with a wide range of emotional disorders, from anxiety and depression to addiction and stress-induced heart disease – offering an exciting new perspective on therapy. Just as earlier investigations of the brain and its cognitive functions revolutionised our understanding of how wee think, Of Two Minds transforms our understanding of how and why we experience emotional distress and conflicts, and suggests a path to a more harmonious, balanced relationship between our two selves.

FREDERIC SCHIFFER, M.D., a psychiatrist, is Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and is Associate Attending Psychiatrist at McLean Hospital. His work has been published in prestigious publications including the Journal of Neuropsychiatry, Comprehensive Psychiatry and The Harvard Review of Psychiatry; Dr Schiffer also maintains a clinical practice in adult psychiatry in Newton, Massachusetts. He has recently been nominated for the Grawemeyer Award in Psychology for his ideas on the dual hemisphere structure of the nervous system and its implications for psychology and psychiatry.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 067103314X
• ISBN 13: 9780671033149
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 272