The centre of the self

Who is more self centred, the person that can see everyone’s angle but invariably acts in their own interests or the person that can only see their own point of view despite any proclaimed good intentions they might have towards others?

In order to ponder this conundrum I would first like to point out that there is supposedly three parts to the brain:

The reptilian brain, the oldest of the three, controls the body’s vital functions such as heart rate, breathing, body temperature and balance.

The limbic brain which can record memories of behaviours that produce agreeable and disagreeable experiences. It is responsible for what are called emotions. It is the seat of value judgements, often made unconsciously, that exert such a strong influence on our behaviour.

The neocortex, the seat of rational thinking, is responsible for the development of human language, abstract thought, imagination and consciousness. The neocortex is flexible and has almost infinite learning abilities. The neocortex is also what has enabled human cultures to develop.

When someone is labelled ‘self-centred’ the key is to determine which part of the brain is engaged by the person doing the labelling.

For example, if the pejorative emerges from the limbic brain then you can be pretty sure that the value judgement itself is derived from self-centred emotions. What I am saying is that anyone that emotionally labels another as self-centred (usually with the pejorative) is in fact just labelling themselves (by some weird form of sublimation).

However, if the labelling is derived from the neocortex it bears more consideration. This person has managed to suppress their emotional instincts and has passed the matter up to the slower but more considered neocortex. This doesn’t mean that when they label someone as self-centred that they are right. As in all matters of human nature there is no right or wrong answer – just a point of view.

Consider this; someone that forever makes rational decisions from the neocortex in the interests of other people (and not their own) would be considered a saint (if they did this in good humour) or a martyr (in bad humour). However can you imagine the destruction to the soul over a long period of time?

I believe that our emotional limbic brain is inherently self-centred and that the rational neocortex brain allows us to attenuate this self-centred view in the interests of social cooperation which in turn derives benefits of safety and emotional return.

When I integrate all these thoughts it is clear to me that we need to carefully nurture our self-centred emotional core and consciously keep a database of all the rationally derived excursions away from it.

And then we need to keep a running tally of the net self-centred behaviours just to make sure we aren’t building up an unsustainable debt of negative emotions associated with the continuing execution of rationally derived un-self-centred behaviour. Otherwise we will crack.

Figuratively, I see this situation as follows; for every action in the rational neocortex there is an equal and opposite reaction in the emotional limbic brain. You have to keep the thing in balance and, in order to do so roughly half of your actions must be self-centred, regardless of whether the decision to be so emerges from the rational neocortex or the emotional limbic part of your brain.