Can the Different Cerebral Hemispheres Have Distinct Personalities? Evidence and Its Implications for Theory and Treatment of PTSD and Other Disorders

David Baldwin's Trauma Information, Articles:
Schiffer (2000)

Can the Different Cerebral Hemispheres Have Distinct Personalities? Evidence and Its Implications for Theory and Treatment of PTSD and Other Disorders.

(This site author's note: It is clinically evident that the cerebral hemispheres do contain separate identities, though the right hemisphere is involved in the processing of unpleasant memories.

Originally published in the Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, 1, 83-104.

Fredric Schiffer, M.D., reviews literature and hypothesizes that psychological traumas are associated more with one cerebral hemisphere than the other, and concludes that the ultimate aim of psychiatric care then becomes the teaching of the mental entity associated with this troubled hemisphere that it is now safer and more valued than it had been at the time of the trauma. He summarizes anecdotal evidence indicating that lateralized sensory stimulation can be used as an effective adjunct to psychotherapy, and describes the practical application of this theory to psychotherapy. "