Have dual survival systems created the human mind?

摘要

This article reviews pertinent psychological theory to argue for two discrete human motivational tracts. These dual systems appear to draw from disparate constellations of emotional energies that normatively become interactive across development. The article stipulates eight premises from the accepted tenets of psychology, development, and pathology along with corroborating evidence from laterality studies, neuropsychology, and the neurosciences. These premises lead to a verifiable hypothesis reflecting Richard Leakey's proposal that H. sapiens emerged from an interpersonal shaping of adaptation across several million years of group living. The totality of the supportive evidence suggests that the flexibility, agility, and creativity of the human mind was abetted by tensions and reconciliations between two disparate hemispheric perspectives, which express as a Personal Self and a Social Self, focused by a lens molded by survival pressures.