I’m taking a course in Theory of Writing and Healing this semester from this guy, who edited this collection. His co-author, Marian MacCurdy, has an article in it entitled “From Trauma to Writing: A Theoretical Model for Practical Use,” and in part of it she looks at current research regarding brain hemisphericity and image. One study at Cornell asked severe epileptics to look at a split computer screen. One side of the screen would show a word, and the other an image that didn’t match the word. The subject would then be asked to look at the left side of the screen and describe what s/he saw. It turned out that the right side of the brain (which saw the words) could not decode it verbally and the left side (which saw the image) could not relate the image to the word. The subjects would then (unbidden) instinctually create a narrative in an attempt to make sense of the images that their brains could not process. (For a better explanation, see page 181 of the book, OK?)

Where all this is headed is a discussion of the Freudian notion of the unconscious, and that’s what I’m interested in:

Gazzaniga and LeDoux interpret these results to mean that the primary task of the verbal self is to construct a reality based on behavior. They believe that our verbal selves are not always aware of the origin of our actions and therefore cannot be depended upon to interpret those actions correctly. As quoted in Springer and Deutsch: “It is as if the verbal self looks out and sees what the person is doing and from that knowledge it interprets a reality” (264). In this context the verbal self assumes information it cannot actually have, producing an inaccurate narrative.

Work with split-brain patients may indeed offer insights into clinical psychology as well. David Galin believes that split brain research can validate Freud’s theory of an unconscious. Galin argues that normally the right and left hemispheres function together, but under certain conditions they can be opaque to each other. As a result, a situation resembling split brain can occur: “Imagine the effect on a child when his mother presents on message verbally, but quite another with her facial expression and body language; ‘I am doing it because I love you, dear’ say the words, but ‘I hate you and will destroy you,’ says the face” (Springer and Deutsch 261). If this occurs, the two hemispheres may be in conflict, in which case the left may try to prevent communication from the right side. During these moments, the left dominates completely, while the right goes underground, functioning as a Freudian unconscious, “an independent reservoir of inaccessible cognition” (262) which can create emotional turmoil. Both the Gazzaniga and LeDoux and the Galin studies indicate that necessary information may not always be accessible to the conscious mind, research findings which may have consequences for writers, particularly those investigating emotionally charged images and topics.

MacCurdy, Marian. "From Trauma to Writing: A Theoretical Model for Practical Use."
Writing and Healing: Toward an Informed Practice.
ed. Charles Anderson and Marian MacCurdy.
Urbana: NCTE, 2000. 181 - 182.