Two streams of consciousness

a typological approach

Paul Bakan

pp. 159-184

in: Kenneth S. Pope, Jerome L. Singer (eds), The stream of consciousness, Berlin, Springer, 1978

Abstract

There is no doubt that the stream of consciousness is somehow related to the functioning of the brain. If, now, it is argued that man has not one brain, but two, a right and a left brain, then is it reasonable to speak of two streams of consciousness rather than one? And, further, can the two streams mediated by the two brains be qualitatively different from each other? And can it be that individual differences in consciousness are due to a bias favoring one or the other stream of consciousness? In this essay I propose to defend the proposition that affirmative answers are appropriate to these questions.