The Enemy Hand

The part of our brain that allows us to make decisions, it turns out, is the same part in charge of emotions. We can reason things out analytically, but we would be hamstrung from turning that analysis into a choice without our emotional brain. The id and the ego and the super ego aren't, it turns out, three separate parts, but all part of the same whole.

But even there, it's not that simple. Our brains have two separate hemispheres, joined by a thin membrane. Most people know that generally each half operates specific functions, and that physically, each half controls the opposite half of the body. Here's where it gets wild. People with severe epilipsy sometimes undergo a surgery to sever the connecting membrane. They function fine, mostly, and better in some ways. After the procedure, patients are often able to draw different shapes with opposite hands at the same time. Strange, right? People with really severe epilipsy can have a hemispherectomy, where half the brain is removed, and in patients having undergone this procedure before age eight, there have been no observable ill effects. Incredible. 


Back to the severing of the joining tissue, there is a condition called enemy hand syndrome, where some patients will have one hand doing things that the patient is not consciously aware of, and they use the other hand to physically restrain the enemy hand. For example, a person on a diet might not want a cookie but the enemy hand will go ahead and pick it up and put it in the mouth. The author did not indicate whether the conscious or unconscious mind is in control of chewing and swallowing.


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