2.4 Lateral Thinking (continued)

Lateral thinking is a generative type of thinking. Once a new arrangement of information has come about then it can he examined by the usual selective processes. Lateral thinking as a process can never justify the outcome, which has to stand by itself. Lateral thinking in no way detracts from the efficiency of vertical thinking. On the contrary, as a generative process it can only add to the over‑all effectiveness of any selective process.

It sometimes happens that lateral thinking can provide an insight rearrangement of information that by itself solves the problem. At other times lateral thinking provides an approach for vertical thinking to develop.

Late twentieth‑century neuropsychological theory suggests that the human forebrain can best be considered as a limbic system and a frontal neocortex. The limbic system is the seat of the emotions; it deals with the non‑rational. In contrast, the neocortex is the thinking brain, but is itself divided into lateral hemispheres with rather different functions, see Table 2.1. In short, the left hemisphere is Apollonian: verbal, mathematical, logical, deductive, and oriented towards the external environment ('outward bound'), whereas the right hemisphere is Dionysian: holistic, intuitive, spatial, pattern‑recognizing, and concerned with inner spaces ('Inward bound').

Table 2.1: Left-and right-brain functions