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Left Brain/Right Brain

Haphazard

Don't Judge Me!
Joined
Apr 14, 2008
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6,704
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ENFJ
I still don't get the difference between the two.

Can someone explain it to me?
 

Athenian200

Protocol Droid
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Jul 1, 2007
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INFJ
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4w5
Well, you're into writing, so let me put it this way:

When you write and brainstorm, you're using your right brain.

When you edit and revise, you're using your left brain.

Does that make sense?

The only further point I could make is that the left brain is about precision processing and analysis, while the right is about holistic processing and synthesis. It's classically defined as the difference between an accountant, mathmatician, or secretary (left), and an author, artist, or entertainer on the other (right). The difference between open-ended and present behavior, as opposed to goal-oriented and future behavior.

In MBTI terms, you could define it as in one sense being P (right) vs J (left), but also being N (right) vs S (left). So essentially, NPs exemplify the right-brained approach, and SJs exemplify the left-brained approach, especially ENTPs and ISTJs, IMO. Actually, you might also choose to describe it as the difference between perceiving and judging functions.

The left brain's function is to evaluate and organize, the right brain's is to create and change.
 

Oaky

Travelling mind
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sp/so
^ You have to add the T/F factors as well where T uses logical thinking (left brained) and F uses feeling (right brained)
 

Athenian200

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^ You have to add the T/F factors as well where T uses logical thinking (left brained) and F uses feeling (right brained)

Yes, but that's a weaker factor than the others. Fe isn't nearly as right-brained as Fi, for instance.
 

Oaky

Travelling mind
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^ Well, yea. I'm just putting the general description of the preferences into account and much less the functions.
 

Shimmy

New member
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SEXY
Your left brain is on the left and your right brain is on the right.
 

BlueScreen

Fail 2.0
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
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YMCA
Ne types are all massively right brained from memory (as Athenian said). My left is a little backup rig in the corner. (what's sense and order?)
 

Athenian200

Protocol Droid
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Like, to the person who has the brain or the person looking at it?

:laugh:

You always have to ask the little but important questions that no one else thinks to ask.

To the person who has it, of course. The person looking at it could be standing anywhere relative to the brain. If they're standing behind the person, it's on the same side for both of them. If they're off the the side, one side is in front of them, and if they're in front, the person's left is on the observer's right.

But the point is, the same side of your brain will always be on YOUR left and right, but not always on the same sides for an observer. Thus, it has to be your own left and right for the sake of consistency.

At least, I hope everyone thought so. If none of the researchers remembered that, all the data might be imaginary or flawed because they didn't keep accurate track of, or even agree on which side of the brain was which. :doh:
 

Seymour

Vaguely Precise
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According to Thomson's Personality Type:

Right Brained: Ne Se Fi Ti
Left Brained: Ni Si Fe Te

Left brained: Ordered, verbal or symbolic, sequential, linear
Right brained: Unordered, non-verbal (spatial, visual, kinetic, etc), random, holistic

So Ti is, somewhat counter-intuitively, a right-brained process.
 

Ben Dover

Permabanned
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Oct 23, 2009
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ISTJ
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5w6
Like, to the person who has the brain or the person looking at it?

If I remember correctly from my psychology class, the books always drew the brain with the left hemisphere on the right side because it's according to your left. So left/right to the person who's brain it is.

And I'm not sure about MBTI preferences and left/right brain function, but I think that left/right handedness are related to left/right brainedness. To what extent this it true, i have no idea. But it's the opposite; right handed people are more left brained, left handed right brained.

Extrapolating from this information, I think the world would be a much more interesting place if more people were left-handed.
 

nightning

ish red no longer *sad*
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Apr 23, 2007
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3,741
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INfj
The brain is not the heart. People actually draw it the right way! :D

The easiest way to remember it is this.

Left brain controls RIGHT hand.
Right brain controls LEFT hand.

Most people are right-handed, most people are conventional, therefore
LEFT BRAIN = structured/logical

Then you have the lefties, these guys are "artsy", so
RIGHT BRAIN = visual/holistic
 

wolfy

awsm
Joined
Jun 30, 2008
Messages
12,251
The brain is not the heart. People actually draw it the right way! :D

The easiest way to remember it is this.

Left brain controls RIGHT hand.
Right brain controls LEFT hand.

Most people are right-handed, most people are conventional, therefore
LEFT BRAIN = structured/logical

Then you have the lefties, these guys are "artsy", so
RIGHT BRAIN = visual/holistic

I do single handed stuff with my right. Two handed with my left. All the guys in my family are like that. What are we?
 

Billy

Crazy Diamond
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Oct 20, 2009
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1,192
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INFJ
how is Ni a left brained trait? It deals with abstraction mostly doesnt it? I am a left handed INFJ who lives on Ni, I am so right brained its ridiculous.
 

FDG

pathwise dependent
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ENTJ
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The brain is not the heart. People actually draw it the right way! :D

The easiest way to remember it is this.

Left brain controls RIGHT hand.
Right brain controls LEFT hand.

Most people are right-handed, most people are conventional, therefore
LEFT BRAIN = structured/logical

Then you have the lefties, these guys are "artsy", so
RIGHT BRAIN = visual/holistic

This isn't true at all, sorry.
 

NewEra

New member
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Dec 21, 2008
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3,104
MBTI Type
I
Left-brained
Logical
Detail-oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
objective
knowing
analytical
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe
(in other words, very ISTJ)


Right-brained
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
aesthetic
creative
synthesizing
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking


In MBTI terms, you could define it as in one sense being P (right) vs J (left), but also being N (right) vs S (left). So essentially, NPs exemplify the right-brained approach, and SJs exemplify the left-brained approach, especially ENTPs and ISTJs, IMO. Actually, you might also choose to describe it as the difference between perceiving and judging functions.

The left brain's function is to evaluate and organize, the right brain's is to create and change.

I can relate very well to this, I definitely am a left-brainer. But I would say ENFPs exemplify the right-brained approach best.
 

Athenian200

Protocol Droid
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I can relate very well to this, I definitely am a left-brainer. But I would say ENFPs exemplify the right-brained approach best.

Technically yes, but I wanted to use ENTPs to show that heavily right-brained people aren't necessarily emotionally intense the way ENFPs are. I didn't want people to assume the artsy side meant intense and deep.
 

NewEra

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I
Technically yes, but I wanted to use ENTPs to show that heavily right-brained people aren't necessarily emotionally intense the way ENFPs are. I didn't want people to assume the artsy side meant intense and deep.

Oh alright, understood.
 

Seymour

Vaguely Precise
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how is Ni a left brained trait? It deals with abstraction mostly doesnt it? I am a left handed INFJ who lives on Ni, I am so right brained its ridiculous.

Please stand by for wall of text:

So, I'm not sure I have a great grasp of the Ni side of things, since that's not a real strength of mine. But, stealing from another Ne vs Ni thread:

Understanding the Eight Jungian Cognitive Processes / Eight Functions Attitudes

And here are the descriptions:

Extraverted iNtuitive:

Extraverted iNtuiting involves noticing hidden meanings and interpreting them, often entertaining a wealth of possible interpretations from just one idea or interpreting what someone’s behavior really means. It also involves seeing things “as if,” with various possible representations of reality. Using this process, we can juggle many different ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and meanings in our mind at once with the possibility that they are all true. This is like weaving themes and threads together. We don’t know the weave until a thought thread appears or is drawn out in the interaction of thoughts, often brought in from other contexts. Thus a strategy or concept often emerges from the here-and-now interactions, not appearing as a whole beforehand. Using this process we can really appreciate brainstorming and trust what emerges, enjoying imaginative play with scenarios and combining possibilities, using a kind of cross-contextual thinking. Extraverted iNtuiting also can involve catalyzing people and extemporaneously shaping situations, spreading an atmosphere of change through emergent leadership.

Introverted iNtuitive:

Introverted iNtuiting involves synthesizing the seemingly paradoxical or contradictory, which takes understanding to a new level. Using this process, we can have moments when completely new, unimagined realizations come to us. A disengagement from interactions in the room occurs, followed by a sudden “Aha!” or “That’s it!” The sense of the future and the realizations that come from introverted iNtuiting have a sureness and an imperative quality that seem to demand action and help us stay focused on fulfilling our vision or dream of how things will be in the future. Using this process, we might rely on a focal device or symbolic action to predict, enlighten, or transform. We could find ourselves laying out how the future will unfold based on unseen trends and telling signs. This process can involve working out complex concepts or systems of thinking or conceiving of symbolic or novel ways to understand things that are universal. It can lead to creating transcendent experiences or solutions

Also:

Ni-Uses the objective situation in the interests of the inner understanding.

Ne-Uses the inner understanding in the interests of the objective situation.

Also:

Ni favours adapting oneself to one's environment. If both are to be changed, it is preferred that the internal plan be completed before any actual changes are implemented.

Ne favours adapting one's environment to oneself. If both are to be changed, it is preferred that actual changes are implemented as they are conceived.


To me, as primarily Ne users, my intuition seems to suggest lots of possibilities all at once in parallel, that I then have to cull down through my judging functions. The hardest part is keeping the possibility generation pointed in the right direction.

My image of Ni is that it is more symbolic or verbal, and follows an almost narrative thread of connections, one jump at a time. Each jump is still intuitive, and an individual jump can be more complex than with Ne. Each jump represents a connection of understanding and is often about a shift of perception that changes the meaning of the elements involved.

So, Ne considering a deadlocked situation might say (somewhat breathlessly) "we try this other approach, or that, or the other way, or -- hey! the sun is shining, today would be a good day for a walk -- oh, yeah... back to the the problem! we could try this other thing or maybe..." (possibilities flickering by faster than they can fully be considered)

Ni considering a deadlocked situation might pause for a bit, take few tentative mental steps into what the problem means, and then suddenly say "Aha! There IS no problem, because the real issue is THIS, not what we've been deadlocked over, and if we frame it that way, it's obvious that we can..."

In both cases, intuition is idea generating and the jumps can't be predicted in advance. In Ne the ideas are more outwardly oriented and tend to be possibilities for changing objective reality. In Ni the ideas are more inwardly directly, and change our understanding. To me it feels like Ni is more mysterious, and is like being able to change the rules of the game part-way through in a transformative way. To me, Ni seems more "meta" and subtle, and tends to produce a bigger chunks of concepts at a time.

It also helps me understand why INFPs are more rigid in some ways than INFJs. Ni helps an INFJ to adjust without destroying (to harmonize) their mental model when new information comes in that challenges their existing ideas. Ne isn't as helpful for that, plus Fi can help stomp on the challenging information before it's fully taken in.

According to Thomson, both Ni and Fe are left brained, so I would think INFJs would lean that way, although it's still an intuitive and feeling oriented kind of left brained.

Again, this from someone who doesn't have a good handle on Ni, so your mileage may vary.
 

Haphazard

Don't Judge Me!
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Apr 14, 2008
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ENFJ
If "Left-brained" is a verbal-oriented, and "Right-brained" is picture oriented, then what is kinesthetic learning?
 
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