In its now-classic album, Hemispheres, Canadian rock band, Rush, sing a dramatic story of a cosmic struggle between competing gods of love and reason; each determined to rule humanity on its own terms. It’s a creative mythological account of the very real dilemmas and tensions we face and experience in human decision-making of head vs heart. (If interested in a faith dimension, we can see this polarity resolved in Jesus, described in the Bible as ‘full of grace and truth’, and in his call to be ‘wise as serpents and tame as doves’). Yet, how hard it is to do this in practice. It becomes more complex if we get caught up in emotional reasoning: ‘…the condition of being so strongly influenced by our emotions that we assume that they indicate objective truth. Whatever we feel is true, without any conditions and without any need for supporting facts or evidence’ (Therapy Now, 2021). It’s a blurring of heart and head so that the former appears to us, as if self-evidently, the latter. Betts and Collier, in their thoughtful review of refugee policy (Refuge, 2017) liken this to a ‘headless heart’; a decision driven by emotional response without due regard for consequences. A person may hold the opposite extreme, the ‘heartless head’, where he or she believes every decision must be informed or supported by rational thinking or objective evidence - and emotion or intuition are disregarded as irrelevant or unsound. We see this in cultural environments where, as Eugene Sadler-Smith observes, leaders feel compelled to post-rationalise intuitive decisions in order to make them more acceptable to colleagues (Inside Intuition, 2007). It’s a stance that risks dismissing beliefs, values and other dimensions of sense-making, motivation and experience. John Kotter brings words of wisdom here (Leading Change, 2012): to pay attention to our own default biases and to take account of those of others too, if we’re seeking to influence change. On presenting vision, he offers a helpful rule of thumb, ‘convincing to the mind and compelling to the heart’. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) provides useful insight into different preferences that influence decision-making too. Rush’s epic song ends with its own solution: ‘Let the truth of Love be lighted, let the love of Truth shine clear…with Heart and Mind united in a single perfect sphere.’
22 Comments
17/5/2022 08:15:56 pm
Nick,
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Nick Wright
20/5/2022 11:00:16 am
Thank you, Tara. 'lacking the full experience of what life has to offer' is a great way of expressing what can happen if the balance is tipped too far one way or the other, especially if that stance is a person or group's on-going tendency and default.
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Peter Daniels
20/5/2022 11:00:58 am
Wow, Nick. That Rush album brings back happy memories!! :)
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Nick Wright
20/5/2022 11:04:45 am
Thanks Peter. For me too! I also loved 2112 at the time. Rush had a great talent for expressing profound human questions, experiences and feelings through drama and story.
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Sandra Barker
20/5/2022 11:07:00 am
Hi Nick. Thank you for helping me to see Jesus and his amazingness in a new light. I hadn't noticed that balance within his own divinity-humanity before.
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Nick Wright
20/5/2022 11:10:16 am
Thank you, Sandra. Yes...and 'divinity-humanity' is another polarity that is mysteriously reconciled in Jesus. He is truly amazing!
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Olivia Waters
20/5/2022 11:17:53 am
Hello Nick. I also read 'Refuge' and was astonished by the long list of disastrous consequences of Angela Merkel's well-intended and unilateral 'open doors' decision in 2015. It was a painful example of the 'headless heart' in action, driven by compassion but not thought-through. I felt equally dismayed by the counter-reaction is provoked in the EU, tipping it to the opposite extreme as a cold example of 'heartless head'. Very sobering, especially for the real people caught up in the middle.
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Nick Wright
20/5/2022 11:23:08 am
Thank you, Olivia. Yes, I agree. It was depressing for me, at the time, that most of the perverse incentives and unintended consequences that flowed from Angela Merkel's decision were entirely predictable. My sense was that she felt responsible and pressured to make a snap-decision, and did so without consulting with any of the key stakeholders who would be most impacted by her decision - and there are important lessons for change leadership and decision-making to be learned there too.
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John Flintoft
20/5/2022 11:26:00 am
Hi Nick. I liked your comment about leaders post-rationalising their intuitive decisions. It begs the question of why some organisations and cultures are so biased towards rationality over other forms or ways of knowing.
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Nick Wright
20/5/2022 11:36:15 am
Thank you, John. That's a very interesting question. I wonder if it could represent a spill-over from a modernist confidence in rationalism and the scientific method. I notice a similar paradigm and language being applied now in many fields (e.g. evidence-based social work; evidence-based therapeutic practice) - which, in spite of its merits, often strikes me as inappropriately reductionist in those fields.
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Arman
22/5/2022 07:45:24 pm
Hi Nick,
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Nick Wright
23/5/2022 12:07:26 pm
Hi Arman. Thank you for such encouraging feedback. I agree - in my own experience too, seeking help from the light of truth (Jesus Christ) can make a tremendous difference. I often sense God's 'voice' as a mysterious sense of knowing that I can't explain in other terms. Bridget Woodall describes it as a spiritual 'realisation'. It's often counter-intuitive, yet it's the route by which I have witnessed and experienced countless miracles.
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Neill Hahn
23/5/2022 02:01:27 pm
I always think it's a great pity (& a bit of a con job) when ideas are reduced to being presented as a choice between only 2 extremes. Heart or Head...? That limitation leaves the infinity of possibilities; combinations and integrations unexplored. Described by black and white thinkers as annoying "grey areas" but are really where life reveals it colour... if you think beyond limiting your ideas to 2 options. Good-bad, right-wrong, etc. All things are true, it is only the scope of truth that varies. I liked the concept of the "sphere" mentioned in the song at the end of the article, as a way of getting past Head or Heart limits... a great insight.
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Nick Wright
24/5/2022 10:27:14 am
Thank you, Neill. I love the way you characterise the 'grey areas' as 'where life reveals it colour.' What a great and wonderful paradox in language and experience!
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Paul Shearing
24/5/2022 01:10:33 am
I like this article a lot - I have in the past been to driven too much by emotions and made decisions without weighing things up logically as they say 'fools rush in" what has helped me improve is discipling myself to wait 24 hours before acting on my impulse and that has really helped me get a better balance.
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Nick Wright
24/5/2022 10:36:25 am
Thank you, Paul, for such encouraging feedback and open response. I like your idea of waiting for 24 hours. It reminded me of colleagues who draft emails but don't send them until the following day - especially if they concern issues that are emotionally charged.
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Christina Nicholas
24/5/2022 01:11:58 am
There is a middle point where the opposites unite. Many mistics felt this and many lucid dreamers may experience this state. It seems to me that the prerequisite for this harmony of feeling and reason is being conscious and present in the body. Then it may be felt as a union between feeling, thinking and sensing with intuition crowning. I think that starting with the body presence provides good anchoring for persevering to be here now. Once the taste of relaxed mind and blissful body appears one is on the way to unification.
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Nick Wright
24/5/2022 10:40:57 am
Hi Christina. Thank you for sharing such interesting reflections. I liked your description of, 'a union between thinking, feeling and sensing with intuition crowning.' On bodily knowing, are you familiar with Eugene Gendlin's work, 'Focusing' (2003)?
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Christina Nicholas
24/5/2022 11:21:58 pm
Hello Nick, nice to hear from you. No, I am not familiar. I was trained 5 yrs by Gerda Boyesen School of Biodynamic (psychotherapy) in London after 6 yrs of Jungian analysis. I enjoyed both and with good outcome. I think that my mind is no longer much thrilled by new theories. But I am curious and will look at it in my spare time.
Nick Wright
26/5/2022 11:02:40 pm
Hi Christina. Wow - that's quite a career. Curiosity is a great quality. In case of interest - and I realise it may not be! - here's an article I wrote on use of physicality in Gestalt coaching: https://www.nick-wright.com/just-do-it.html. If you do read it, I would love to hear your reflections on it, based on your experiences in this and related arenas.
Ian Henderson
24/5/2022 04:58:42 pm
Thoughtful article Nick. It's a balance that I have thought and spoken about with many people. I'm not sure I have got it right yet, but there's time eh??
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Nick Wright
24/5/2022 05:01:09 pm
Thank you, Ian. Yes, indeed. Me too. As my mentor says: such things are 'simple but not easy'...
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Nick WrightI'm a psychological coach, trainer and OD consultant. Curious to discover how can I help you? Get in touch! Like what you read? Simply enter your email address below to receive regular blog updates!
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