a headline grabbed me this morning. it read, "Road Rage; Why This Senseless Crime?"

why? the answer is the paleomammalian brain.

the story told of a man driving on the highway who became enraged when another car cut into his lane. a high-speed "race" began between the two drivers, which ended in the death of an innocent third person.

the paleobrain uses its emotional "language" to magnify or diffuse or otherwise redirect messages coming from the reptilian brain. in the case above, the reptilian's sense of territoriality had been "violated." the paleobrain emotionally magnified that message into rage which over-rode the "conscious" influence of the neocortex. you can see the same process going on around you (or in you) everyday.

but a great deal more was happening than meets the eye. i will try to be very general and brief.

evolution created the paleobrain around the reptilian brain for two major "reasons:"

first, to enable life to break the endless patterns of the reptilian, so life could adapt to changes in the environment and survive. for example, a reptilian prototype does the same thing every day of its life - the same "day" repeated endlessly. should an obstacle unexpectedly appear in the reptile's normal path (like a fallen boulder), the reptile will sit there unmoving until it dies. the same reptile with a paleobrain added will use emotional energy (like rage) to overcome the obstacle.

second, to introduce to life the "concepts" of "parenting" and of "play!" (in other words, the first signs of Love and Creativity).

unlike the neocortex and the reptilian brains, which are subdivided in two, the paleobrain has three subdivisions; the amygdalar, the septal, and the thalamocingulate divisions. (note that there are THREE brains with SEVEN subdivisions)

the main thing i want to relay now about the paleobrain is this: there is convincing evidence that the emotional energy of the paleobrain IS AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY for humans to have any kind of sense of SELF-IDENTITY. in other words, without emotion "I" do not exist; "YOU" do not exist.

the emotional energy of the paleobrain brings with it a sense of "self-identity." without that emotional energy, there is no "self-identity."

and so oftentimes, as in the "road-rage" story above, an individual fearing loss of "territory" also fears loss of "self." the instantaneous response of the paleobrain is overpowering emotion. and in that emotional release, the statement is made that "I EXIST! and YOU cannot do that to ME!"