Customer Reviews

OF TWO MINDS: THE REVOLUTIONARY SCIENCE OF DUAL-BRAIN PSYCHOLOGY

5 star:		(11)
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3 star:		(1)
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Don't mistake this book for another tedious explanation of what it means to be right-brained or left-brained. This is a wonderful user's manual to our personalities, and specifically to why we get sad or anxious. Schiffer explains clearly and engangingly, at a level I found easy to understand (I'm not in the mental health field), how each of us essentially harbors two people in ourselves, and why we sometimes suffer because of it. Schiffer throws in plenty of convincing research and examples, and lays out a clear approach to identifying our two personalities, showing how one of them tends to cause us problems, and then dealing with it (there's a simple vision trick that can help). It's already helped me understand a lot about myself. Somehow, it's a fun read, too.

The book describes how you can easily stimulate one side of your brain and how this can affect your mood - and it works. After seeing Doctor Schiffer on 20/20, I tried for myself the simple test he described on TV and explains in the book. In less than a minute after covering all but my extreme left visual field, I was in tears. Trying the other side took away all my stress just as quickly and made me feel self-confident. The results of the two hemisphere theory Schiffer explains in this book worked for me. I've since shared the same test with friends and relatives. Without any previous explanation, they experience the same effects as the book predicts. This book outlines a real, practical and simple way to reduce stress. I highly recommend the book and encourage you to make your own pair of glasses as he describes. Just get a pair of $4 safety goggles and tape the lenses. My wife and I can really open up to each other by following the conversation techniques in the book, while wearing homemade pairs of glasses. I know we must look silly, but it works. My only complaint about Schiffer's book is that he focuses primarily on the theraputic value of his research. It would have been nice if he had explored the other possibilities of his discoveries. At least this book is not just another theoretical work. It has techniques in it that you can try yourself. Whether or not you believe his conclusions, you will experience the effect.

Alexei Lebedev wrote a very thoughtful review that I would like to respond to. First, the psychological ideas I present are built upon a large literature on cerebral laterality. In our laboratory at McLean Hospiital we have used placebo controlled studies to rule out the suggestion that very rightly concerns Mr. Lebedev. The glasses have been used also to predict which patients with severe depression will respond to transcranial magnetic stimulation over the left forehead. When I use the glasses in the office the way I describe in the book, then no doubt suggestion has some role, but there I am looking for a therapeutic response and am not conducting an experiment. As I reported, about a third of my patients have no response to the glasses, an other third had a mild response and the last group have rather profound responses along the mature/childish dichotomy. In our laboratory we have found that retesting subjects two times, a year apart, there was a very high correlation between trials. In the book, I describe patients who had the more dramatic responses. In patients who do not have responses, the findings from other patients can still be applied to them and can be very helpful in giving them a better concept of why they are suffering. That Mr. Lebedev did not have a profound response showing the mature/childish dichotomy is not surprising.

Mr. Lebedev's idea of blocking the ear is a good suggestion. I did not know when I wrote the book that Paul Green, Ph.D. had done considerable work using ear plugs to help patients with different conditions, and I have occassionally used them. The ears are not as strongly lateralized to the different hemispheres and the auditory ares are not as large as the visual areas, so auditory stimulation would not be expected to be as strong as visual stimulation. In my experience, I have found the visual stimulation to be much stronger in terms of eliciting different psychological responses.

I do not believe as my book led Mr. Lebedev understand that the visual information goes only to one side. Rather, we now have fMRI evidence showing that the glasses induce a large increase in brain blood flow in the opposite hemisphere. The lateralized glasses stimulate the opposite hemisphere as will contracting muscles on one side. Also I don't believe that the problems are "just in one hemisphere." Rather, from our EEG, evoke potential, and fMRI studies, and the psychological responses observed in placebo controlled studies, I believe that the glasses stimulate different sets of neural patterns that are associated in some way with the different hemispheres and with different psychological perspectives.

So I believe there is much science behind my hypothesis. A number of scientific papers from our laboratory are posted at SchifferMD.com. More importantly, I continue to find these ideas to be extremely helpful in my clinical practice.

Fredric Schiffer, M.D.
Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School

I saw a piece on 20/20 by Dr. Timothy Johnson on Dr. Schiffer's goggle therapy. I have tried this method and it really works. As with many things in life, this is a case where an unorthodox manner of treatment that may at first seem strange offers impressive benefits. Anyone who is suffering from depression should read this book and incorporate its teachings.

This method is probably one of the finest therapies I have been lucky enough to come across. Aside from the fact that the book is well written and easy to understand the concept is workable. From a clinical point of view the method is well researched but from a personal point of view the method is invaluable. There is a joke at the hospital that I worked at that the mental health doctors were as crazy as the patients but I think that in order to truly understand them you need to see the world through their eyes. Dr Schiffer seems to be able to do this. My father has severe depression and my brother Cerebal Palsy. So this book is not just professional but personal. I tried the glasses on my brother and for the first time I saw the difference. He is on occasion unable to control low-level fits. It took approx 30 secs for his brain to quiet itself and I also got to see a side of him I've never seen before. My brother has a genius IQ and two degrees and yet is unable to control his brain till now. He actually asked me for the glasses the other day when it flared again. Dr Schiffer you don't know me but thank-you from the bottom of my heart. You have helped me and my family. I hope that anyone that reads this book is helped as I have been.

This book is important. Take note.

The book explains who you are, no less. You are a rational person living side by side with SOMETHING.

That something is part hurt child, part wounded animal, part personality fragment. But it's there, with you at all time. String together all the occasions where you freaked out (it's the other side taking over), and you get the general idea. Quite a disturbed entity, eh?

Now, when the ground rules are set, we can proceed to heal that part of our brain, and rid ourselves of the burden of swimming upstream against its anguish and protests and fears. Be it the conventional EMDR psychotherapy procedue or the new age rebirthing technique, and certainly combined with a centering meditation like Zazen or SSY that stills the mind from unwanted thoughts - we can regain control on our lives and move on. And our cognition could flourish.

The unwanted train of thoughts, both it and its absence so lucidly defined in the first chapter of "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle, might be caused by not having completely wrestled control over our consciousness, our very fabric of existence, from the other hemisphere. Ending internal conflict will enable us to properly utilize associative thinking ("IQ"), the very development of which happened in order to compensate for our fuzzy and imperfect grasp on reality.

Since we share that grasp with another mind, which Schiffer found is an irrational and miserable mind.

(converseley, the more your thoughts are naturally under control, the less creative you are, many prodigees are like that).

I believe this book holds a large part of the key to happiness and to harmonious existence. Where thoughts are a way to relate to reality, and not a frantic and largely irrational attempt to interpret it.

A clear 5 stars. An outstanding book.

This book takes the next step in converging the many theories about two brain psychology. Most books have mearly eluded to the fact that the two brains have a possibility of being two separate entities. Dr. Schiffer has been bold enough to take the logical next step, which is to face the facts, that two separate entities are the only real way to describe the brain, and it's two halves, for, the brain's two halves are really, two brains not one. Plus, he has tangible examples, with methods for each person to find a way that they can explore this phenomenon for themselves in their own way, and at their own pace.

The author's main theory is that psychological problems, such as anxiety or depression, can become internalized in just one hemisphere of the brain, with the other hemisphere remaining intact and normal. Sometimes, it's the left hemisphere that's damaged, sometimes it's the right.

Therapy consists of all the normal things psychotherapy consists of (talking, medicines), plus sessions with special goggles. These are googles where most of the surface is covered with tape, which allows visual information to only reach one hemisphere of the brain. The patients try on each pair of goggles and report their experiences. By "talking directly to the affected hemisphere", Mr. Schiffer helps his patients.

When I first read the book, I was very excited and immediately constructed a pair of goggles like Mr. Schiffer describes and tried them on. I watched TV with them, or just sat in one place. I could definitely feel some difference -- I felt a bit uneasy on one side. Then again, a similar effect occurs when you put your cell phone to your other ear. But nothing of the positive/negative or mature/childish effect described in the book.

What struck me about the book is the very unscientific approach of Mr. Schiffer. For example, a person will try on a pair of goggles and say "everything is gloomy". Mr. Schiffer will then say "try looking out the other side", which is not just an instruction to try the a pair of goggles, but also a psychological suggestion as well. The person then puts on the other goggles and proceeds to talk in a mature, optimistic way about the future. Doesn't Mr. Schiffer realize he's giving a suggestion to a person in a very receptive state?

Mr. Schiffer never addresses this obvious objection -- that it may be he who suggests to his patients what to do, by virtue of the fact that they're in a restrictive setting, by his expectation to see some difference. The metaphor suggested by the uneasy goggles is uneasy/comfortable, damaged/fixed, pessimistic/optimistic, weak/resourceful, sick/healthy.

In order for a psychotherapist to address one hemisphere, wouldn't it make more sense to plug the corresponding ear instead of taping off the visual field? Mr. Schiffer never does that when he has the patient try the goggles. Doesn't hearing with both ears stimulate both hemispheres equally?

So if Mr. Schiffer was not really "talking to the other hemisphere" as much as creating an idea in the patient's head that this was was being done, would it make any difference?

As a psychotherapist, I was particularly interested in the psychological relationship between the two sides of the brain. This book provided an entirely new and incredibly thorough understanding of the cause of low self esteem, shame, and self-criticism, in addition to providing insight on how to heal from these things. This book is evidence-based, interesting, easy to read, even funny at parts.

Not only did I personally apply the techniques discussed, but I passed them onto my clients whose rate of improvement has since increased dramatically.

This book provides, more than any theory I have ever read about a complete explanation for psychological deficiency.

With the recent publication of Iain McGilchrist's powerfully researched The Master and His Emissary, about the differing perspectives of the two different hemispheres, dual-brain psychology is again of interest. Or at least, it should be. I happened to recently stumble on Dr. Schiffer's treasure of a book when a friend recommended it. Since Of Two Minds was published some thirteen years ago, in 1998, I had expected something rather dated that pandered to the then-interest in split brain research. What I found was instead was a remarkably focused, well-researched, and enlightened book--a book that is as important today as when it was first written. Dr. Schiffer is a world-class researcher, and his findings are cogent, well-reasoned, and absolutely fascinating. In essence, Dr. Schiffer shows convincing evidence that we have two distinct minds--two distinct ways of viewing the world. Awareness of this fact can help provide therapeutic insight into our own personalities and quirks.

An added bonus is that Dr. Schiffer is also an excellent writer--he tells gripping stories that provide a great deal of insight to the theory he is conveying. I highly recommend this book.