Blog Posts for Social Emotional Intelligence

I just read three brilliant blog posts by neuropsychologist Rick Hanson, in which he identifies three parts of our human brains:

• The primate brain (cortex) focuses on connecting with others.
• The mammal brain (limbic system) focuses on approaching rewards.
• The reptile brain (brain stem) focuses on avoiding harm.

Though we like to think of the primate brain as the foremost part (after all, primate means “first”), many believe it was the last part of the brain to develop. It is also the last part to receive signals from the spinal cord. So Dr. Hanson deals with the most ancient part, the brain stem, first. Read more