How to Handle Bullying

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Bullies harness the brain's left hemisphere that lacks care or empathy for others.

The narrow focus of the brain's left hemisphere cuts us off from a sense of connection to Others.

Using a two-eyed, dual brain-hemisphere approach expands our vision and insight.

Bullying done from one person to another parallels bullying done from one populace to another. Person-to-person abuse is the microcosm. Populace-to-populace bullying, as we see in colonialism where the settlers abused the Indigenous population, acts as a macrocosm. Settlers oppressing and harming Indigenous populations occurs in colonialism. All of these forms of bullying require a pronounced lack of empathy.

Bullying puts on blinders to Others' knowledge, experience, humanity, and personhood. It does not walk in the Other’s shoes, does not feel their pain, and does not see through their eyes. It is biased in favour of its own tunnel vision. In recent years, neuroscientists have begun to see the limits of this approach.

When we examine the bullying mindset while keeping brain science in mind, we can see that bullying—both micro and macro—compares to experiencing the world through only one brain hemisphere while ignoring data from the brain’s other hemisphere. It produces a lopsided, unbalanced, and limiting point of view, which is exactly what scientific studies strive to avoid.

Our left and right brain hemispheres are different

Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist researches brain lateralization—the different ways in which our left and right brain hemispheres see and connect with Others and the world itself. As he describes it, our brains construct reality “from two incompatible world views.” The left is defined by narrow self-focus, whereas the right experiences profound connection with Others. The left is like an opportunist, while the right compares to an altruist.

In his book The Master and His Emissary, McGilchrist expresses concern with the normalizing of abuse culture........

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