Chapter 3
Mind monkeys and lizard brain
Why do we leave things to the last minute – and then freak out at the deadline? Why, when we need courage, do we scare ourselves more? Why do we insist on winding ourselves up with disaster thinking? Why do we say we want one thing, then do the complete opposite?
The answer is this: we have monkeys living in our brain.
In his book The Chimp Paradox, Professor Steve Peters describes the brain as having three different parts:
- The human brain: which makes logical, purposeful decisions, motivated by fulfilment, self-development, morals and ethics.
- The chimp brain: which is responsible for survival, driven by primitive emotional drivers, such as fear, ego and rage (and, yes, the reproductive drive). It is extremely ...
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