The rational mind might not be in any more of an advantageous position than the lizard brain is, when it comes to discern the presence of implicit bias in the mind of the beholder.
I am of the opinion that this is the precise reason why those who are victims of implicit bias(for instance, because of their race or gender) are unable to draw attention to their predicaments by appealing to rationality. It is because rationality is quite empty, quite abstract, without the input of data that comes from the more instinctive parts of our minds. But these instinctive parts are already, as I have said, biased due to having incorporated and internalised cultural standards of normality as if these were universal and objective standards. (Once the standards have become internalised, the brain doesn't know the difference.)
And this is why shamanism and its notions of "double vision" are important -- because by distrusting the dominant matrix of values and ideas, one can realise that these values are actually CREATED , rather than being genuinely objective values. (I am speaking of such values as patriarchal values, nationalist values, and so on.) The point of shamanism is to realise that even our felt certainties have actually been CREATED by our early experiences. So, we see things as we feel that they objectively are, but then we we have the shamanic "second vision" where we see things as being totally contingent (I mean, that they are dependent on our particular circumstances of upbringing and suchlike).
2.
Despite this, it does seem that Paul MacLean's model of the triune brain could be very liberating for feminism. What it seems to indicate is that gendered consciousness does not actually go all the way down to the bottom of our beings. It seems that gendered consciousness is more likely linked to processes of the paleomammalian brain, which came after the development of lizard brain. Our basic levels of consciousness are concerned with survival and an orientation towards power systems in the abstract. By this, I mean that the hardware of this brain is extremely open and flexible, not that this brain system isn't oriented towards the world in terms of actual, tangible or semi-tangible relationships.
A lot of my views come from Kleinian psychology, but it is also present in, for instance, Julia Kristeva's work, which deals with this level of consciousness, and argues that it is power rather than gender that early childhood psychology is concerned with.
Lizard brain is not even determined by its own self conscious appropriation of values about "biology", since it experiences itself as lacking physical boundaries, and therefore able to move parts of the mind effectively BETWEEN bodies (this is one of the weirder things about Kleinian psychology -- it is somewhat disembodied). Lizard brain is oriented towards group think, the power of the tribe (in a way, a better conceptualisation than "herd", since it invokes the sense of primeval identification mechanisms), and towards fight or flight. It is NOT concerned with mammalian issues of mating and reproduction (ie. issues relating to what we understand as "relationships"). Lizard brain has only orientations, it is not capable of having relationships, except on the basis of mechanics. It fundamentally does not "relate" as is has no personhood, nor even any specific personality. (When people play the role of Internet troll, they are like this.)
I am of the opinion that this is the precise reason why those who are victims of implicit bias(for instance, because of their race or gender) are unable to draw attention to their predicaments by appealing to rationality. It is because rationality is quite empty, quite abstract, without the input of data that comes from the more instinctive parts of our minds. But these instinctive parts are already, as I have said, biased due to having incorporated and internalised cultural standards of normality as if these were universal and objective standards. (Once the standards have become internalised, the brain doesn't know the difference.)
And this is why shamanism and its notions of "double vision" are important -- because by distrusting the dominant matrix of values and ideas, one can realise that these values are actually CREATED , rather than being genuinely objective values. (I am speaking of such values as patriarchal values, nationalist values, and so on.) The point of shamanism is to realise that even our felt certainties have actually been CREATED by our early experiences. So, we see things as we feel that they objectively are, but then we we have the shamanic "second vision" where we see things as being totally contingent (I mean, that they are dependent on our particular circumstances of upbringing and suchlike).
2.
Despite this, it does seem that Paul MacLean's model of the triune brain could be very liberating for feminism. What it seems to indicate is that gendered consciousness does not actually go all the way down to the bottom of our beings. It seems that gendered consciousness is more likely linked to processes of the paleomammalian brain, which came after the development of lizard brain. Our basic levels of consciousness are concerned with survival and an orientation towards power systems in the abstract. By this, I mean that the hardware of this brain is extremely open and flexible, not that this brain system isn't oriented towards the world in terms of actual, tangible or semi-tangible relationships.
A lot of my views come from Kleinian psychology, but it is also present in, for instance, Julia Kristeva's work, which deals with this level of consciousness, and argues that it is power rather than gender that early childhood psychology is concerned with.
Lizard brain is not even determined by its own self conscious appropriation of values about "biology", since it experiences itself as lacking physical boundaries, and therefore able to move parts of the mind effectively BETWEEN bodies (this is one of the weirder things about Kleinian psychology -- it is somewhat disembodied). Lizard brain is oriented towards group think, the power of the tribe (in a way, a better conceptualisation than "herd", since it invokes the sense of primeval identification mechanisms), and towards fight or flight. It is NOT concerned with mammalian issues of mating and reproduction (ie. issues relating to what we understand as "relationships"). Lizard brain has only orientations, it is not capable of having relationships, except on the basis of mechanics. It fundamentally does not "relate" as is has no personhood, nor even any specific personality. (When people play the role of Internet troll, they are like this.)
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