The anatomy of the ego.
There is a curious behavior observed in the human split-brain experiments in which the subject demonstrates a reflexive and obligatory ownership of the actions initiated by the silent right brain even though the speaking self is ignorant of that volition. If you add to this observation the results of another experiment, revealing the existence of a boundary to the verbal mental system in the intact brain, then--with the knowledge of certain facts about cerebral laterality--you may come to a startling conclusion: There exists a governing mental system that occupies the verbally dominant hemisphere and is responsible for mental unity, volition, and consciousness. I contend that this anatomical brain agency is the substrate for the ego. If this is true, then it can be seen that the ego, in its development, function, and integrity, is intimately involved in the brain dynamics of obligatory unity, cerebral dominance, and laterality.
Tinnin
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West Virginia University, Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, Chestnut Ridge Hospital, Morgantown 26505.
D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000502:physiology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D004532:Ego; D006801:Humans; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D010553:Personality Development