Something interesting that MacGilchrist points out is that the two hemispheres both, in their own way, tend toward pain. That the dominant pain of the left hemisphere is anger, and the dominant pain of the right is sorrow.
Melancholy, depression, loneliness, anxiety, regret — these things are works of the right hemisphere, which fleshes them out, makes them vivid and real. Anger, hate, fury — these are the works of the left hemisphere, dividing the world into stark certainties that lead to conflict and hatred, which can be focused toward others, or even toward an individual's own self.
Why? And all this is a big question for psychologists, a question that coalesces around the issue of clinical depression. Depression is not just 'feeling down' — it's something altogether different, far more vicious and extreme. Clinical depression is where the feelings of sorrow, anguish or self-hate have become so potent that they have essentially crippled the individual.
Depression becomes clinical when feelings of extreme suffering become so intense that a person is effectively rendered unable to operate in society. That's very extreme suffering.
But then of course, you have a far, far larger number of people, who live with low-level pain as a way of life. People who always complain about things because their whole lives are generally disappointing. People who live grasping and hungry for the next fix of consumer product, or clothing.
And the interesting thing is this — sure, most people aren't actually crippled by suffering. But it's always there, in the background, and can (and will) sometimes flare up, explosively. In relationships, in friendships, in career. Whether sorrow or rage, the results are always predictable — the poisoning, or the destruction, of some part of life.
Why is this? If the human mind is what it appears to be — a rational processor — then these things are catastrophic dysfunctions. And it is very strange that they still exist in something that has evolved.
Evolution is very, very good at weeding out dysfunction. And yet if we take the general view of the mind (as a normal processor) then we have to come to the conclusion that it's left a few kinks in the machine.
But if we instead look at this from the perspective of the mind as a display, we find that actually, all this can be brought into crystal focus.
Firstly, the mind didn't evolve — a display of the mind evolved. And as a display, it has the agenda of a display. To be seen. To be striking. To make noise, to instigate drama, sorrow and conflict for no other reason but that such things make it more vivid as a display.
An interesting possibility arises — that human suffering is, in large part, needless. It has no purpose other than to perpetuate more pain, for the purposes of making the self more striking and vivid, for the purpose of display.
This is a new way of looking at pain, of understanding the depths of despair, the heights of rage, and the frustration of powerlessness and boredom that bedevil and blight so much of our lives. A fresh, clear way to look at all the pain we suffer — and all the pain we create.
Pain always seems rational, whether it is rage or sorrow. It always comes cloaked in reasons, rationales. I am angry because, I am sad because. But then of course, that rationality might not be quite as rational as it appears.
And that ‘because’ is where this whole thing takes on a new dimension — because what we're looking at, at least potentially, is that all those reasons are essentially untrue. That they are ‘cobbled together’ after the fact to rationalise the existence of pain that exists only for the sake of loud and noisy display.
This is obviously a process that would be somewhat tricky (but not impossible, and we'll get to why that is later) to see in one's self. But it can be seen very clearly in others. The irrationality of rage. The irrationality of sorrow. That such things sustain themselves in other people way beyond any reason presented.
But then, most of life, for most people is not lived in these extremes. But no-one is immune to destructive outbursts, or poisonous paranoia, or sorrow, or relentless dissatisfaction that poisons relationships, friendships, people, lives, and the larger world in which we live.
All ancient wisdom traditions that survive from antiquity speak of a genuine resolution to this issue. That there is a way to live free of pain. A way to live free of rage and sorrow. Of the blindness that both bring, of the monstrosity that rage makes of humans, and the pathetic, wasted shadow that sorrow can twist a person into.
Some are currently living in deep, vicious anger or terrible, weeping sadness. Most are holding life together, to a degree. Keeping everything in place, keeping ourselves distracted with new toys and new clothes, new parties, new obsessions, new relationships, new this and new that. Feed the beast with novelty for one more day.
Because we all know what happens when it isn't fed. If you don't get your novelty, if you don't get your new project, new distraction, new relationship. Then it has nothing to do but feed upon itself, and it will, and it will hurt.
And this, for most, is what it means to be alive. We are happy as children, but over time this process stifles that, strangles that joy, and as we age, as we grow, so our suffering grows. But because we now see things from a new angle, this isn't what life has to mean. There is now another way. Because overwhelmingly, the pain and the sorrow are fictions spun for pain and sorrow's purpose alone — and that purpose is not to heal. That purpose is to grow, to dominate, to stifle life in sorrow and regret.
In fact, because suffering is the fundamental go-to fuel for the human self, many people balk at the idea of ending pain, or even reducing it. Who would I be if I wasn't suffering? Who would I be without my fury? Who would I be without my special pain, the pain that makes me, me?
Well, for those brave souls ready to find out, and for those sorry souls who have had more than their fill, perhaps it is possible to find a way to defuse this pain right down in the heart, and be free, and live free, with eyes wide open. Who would you be when the pain falls away?
Perhaps it's time to find out.
But in order to really open this up, we're going to have to leave hemispheres behind for a second, and look at something else.