A

Mercy plus Perceiver 101

As I mentioned before, viewing the right and left dorsolateral frontal
cortices as a single structure actually makes sense from a behavioral
standpoint. The superior (top half) frontal cortex operates as an
interconnected system, since the Perceiver internal world (on the right
side) interacts heavily with the Server internal world (on the left). I suggest
that this is because Contributor strategy builds mental connections between
individual Perceiver and Server memories. This interaction can be seen in
the behavior of the typical Perceiver person. When he thinks, he often
makes nervous or repetitive movements with his hands, indicating that
conscious Perceiver
processing is spilling
over into subconscious
Server actions.
Having said this, let
us examine what
neurology in fact has
discovered about the
dorsolateral frontal
lobes. I should mention
first that the overall
distinction between
orbitofrontal cortex (associated with Teacher and Mercy emotional
thought) and dorsolateral frontal cortex (connected with the internal world
of Perceiver and Server modes) is well established: “In general terms,
ablation studies indicate that the cortex of the dorsal and lateral prefrontal
surface is primarily involved in cognitive aspects of behavior. The rest of
the prefrontal cortex, medial and ventral [middle and bottom], appears to
be mostly involved in affective [emotional] and motivational functions.” 7
Normal behavior involves the interaction of these two aspects of the
internal world. This is illustrated by the case of a gentleman who had much
of his orbitofrontal cortex removed because of a cancerous growth. The
operation completely changed his personality. His ability to plan was still
present—because dorsolateral frontal cortex was reasonably intact.
However, these schemes lacked emotional depth—because orbitofrontal
cortex was missing. For example, soon after he returned to work, he
“established a partnership with a man of questionable reputation and went
into business, against sound advice. The venture proved catastrophic. He
had to declare bankruptcy and lost his entire personal investment...His
wife left home with the children and filed for divorce...He married within
a month after his first divorce, against the advice of his relatives. The
second marriage ended in divorce two years later.” Ten years further on, at
the time when this paper was written, he was “considering a third marriage
to a woman 14 years his senior and planned to establish a luxury travel
business in which he would drive vacationing persons around the country
in a motor home.” 5 Notice that his internal world was full of Perceiver

Perceiver

Automatic

Thought

Perceiver

Internal

World