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for survival and other wild-animal traits. The whole thing is called the basal ganglia, and

there are two almond-shaped bits in everyone's brain. Scientists call these the amygdala,

and this mini-brain apparently takes over whenever you are angry, afraid, aroused,

hungry, or in search of revenge.

It's only recently that our brains evolved to allow big thoughts, generosity, speech,

consciousness, and yes, art. When you look at a picture of the brain, the new part is what

you see: the neocortex. That's the wrinkly gray part on the outside. It's big, but it's weak.

In the face of screaming resistance from the amygdala, the rest of your brain is helpless.

It freezes and surrenders. The lizard takes over and tries to protect itself.

The challenge, then, is to create an environment where the lizard snoozes. You can't beat

it, so you must seduce it. One part of your brain worries about survival and anger and

lust. The rest of it creates civilization.

This is part metaphor, part biology. The lizard brain is here to keep you alive; the rest of

your brain merely makes you a happy, successful, connected member of society.

So the two parts duke it out. And when put on alert, the lizard brain wins, every time,

unless you've established new habits and better patterns--patterns that keep the lizard at

bay.

(Evolving a Brain That Could Create Civilization)

Quick oversimplified biology lesson: Here are four of the major systems in your brain.

(Note: "system" is more of a conceptual hook for understanding what happens as opposed

to a biological truth or hard wiring.) As you go down the list, each system becomes more

civilized but less powerful:

1. Brain Stem--breathing and other unconscious survival functions

2. Limbic System--the lizard brain. Anger and revenge and sex and fear.

3. Cerebellum--coordination and motor control

4. Cerebrum--the newest and most sophisticated part of our brain, and also the one that

is always overruled by the other three parts.

There are four lobes to the cerebrum, and their functions are the stuff to be proud of:

Frontal Lobe: reasoning, planning, parts of speech, movement, problem solving

Parietal Lobe: movement, orientation, recognition, perception of stimuli

Occipital Lobe: eyesight (and the essential, overlooked, and underrated orbitofrontal

cortex, which integrates the lizard brain with your rational mind)

Temporal Lobe: hearing, memory, and speech

You can't give a speech while drowning. You can't fall in love while having a heart

attack. You can't write a sonnet at the same time you're vomiting from being on a roller

coaster.

The metaphor goes like this: the older a brain system is on the evolutionary scale (and the

closer to the brain stem), the more power it has to suspend the actions of the younger

systems. And the lizard brain within the limbic system is the loudest example of this

metaphor. You rarely have a heart attack (I hope) and you probably won't get so dizzy

that you fall down, but your amygdala regularly suspends all civilized activity within

your brain and takes over, putting you into lockdown.

More than fifty years ago, physician and neuroscientist Paul MacLean did research at

Yale and at the National Institute of Mental Health. He laid out what he called triune

theory, which led to the thinking behind the lizard brain. Combine this with Antonio

Damasio's work in understanding the role of the orbitofrontal cortex in integrating the

lizard with the more rational parts of the mind and you can see the never-ending struggle

and collaboration the two parts of your brain create.

The Man with Two Brains

That would be me. You too, obviously.

Why do people do things that are self-destructive? Why work on a paper for a week but

never save it or back it up? Why do entrepreneurs get so close to success and then

sabotage all the work that they've done in a moment of fear?

We mess up precisely because of the "we." There are two, not one, voices in our head,

and one of them is closer to the