The biological dissolution of the individual and the illusion of human identity

The contemporary Western social and political framework is fundamentally anchored in the profound and deeply ingrained conviction that every human being operates as an indivisible individual possessing a single, authentic, and unified core. This foundational liberal assumption postulates the existence of a clear inner voice that acts as the sole and ultimate authority for our decisions across all areas of life, guiding our moral compass and shaping our personal trajectories. However, contemporary life sciences and advanced neurological research increasingly expose this deeply ingrained concept as pure fiction, replacing the traditional image of the homogeneous ego with the much more complex and fragmented model of the polyphonic organism. When individuals look inward, they do not actually find a uniform identity, but rather a chaotic conglomerate of conflicting impulses, competing desires, and unconscious biological processes that constantly negotiate the terms of existence.

The Neurological Specialisation of the Brain Hemispheres

The human skull houses a remarkably complex and highly structured organ that is physically divided into two distinct halves and communicates via a massive and intricate nerve cord. Each of these hemispheres controls the opposite side of the physical body and processes specific sensory stimuli from the respective half of the face with remarkable precision. In the case of severe neurological failures, this separation becomes drastically evident when patients completely dissociate from their own left half of the body and might, for example, only clear the right side of their dining plate while ignoring the food on the left. Even in a completely healthy state, the two areas do not work synchronously, but instead possess clear and distinct functional specialisations that dictate their unique operational parameters.

To understand the complex communication between these distinct areas, surgeons in the middle of the previous century severed the connecting nerve cord in patients suffering from severe and unmanageable epilepsy. These surgical interventions successfully prevented the spread of electrical storms, but they simultaneously created two largely independent consciousness centers within a single physical body. Researchers utilized this unique constellation to assign separate tasks to the two halves and meticulously document their respective reactions in controlled environments. When a young subject was asked about career aspirations, the verbally dominant left hemisphere responded with the specific goal of becoming a professional draftsman.

The Left Hemisphere as a Permanent Storyteller

The right hemisphere of the adolescent, however, possessed its own silent language center that could only express itself by arranging physical letter blocks on a table. When the researchers placed the question about the future into the left visual field, the left hand of the subject independently formed the desire for a career in professional motorsport. This eerie phenomenon repeated itself with a former soldier, whose hands entered a constant state of conflict when one hemisphere wanted to open a door while the other simultaneously tried to close it. Such observations definitively prove that no unified will rules our interior, but rather a constant tug of war between autonomous instances.

The verbally gifted left hemisphere acts as a permanent storyteller, weaving meaningful narratives out of highly fragmentary and disconnected information. When a subject is presented with a picture of a chicken and a picture of a snowy landscape, the right hand reaches for the chicken while the left hand reaches for a snow shovel. When asked to explain the connection, the left hemisphere immediately invents a plausible explanation to justify the contradictory grasp of the other hand. This internal press secretary acts like an oblivious foreign ministry, retrospectively justifying the actions of an autonomous secret service with flimsy and unconvincing arguments.

The Conflict Between Experiencing and Remembering

This division of identity continues on the level of our perception and decision-making processes, revealing a profound fragmentation of the self. Economists have discovered that our consumption and life decisions are not made by a single rational actor, but are instead the result of internal negotiations. Instead, two completely different systems struggle for supremacy, namely the experiencing self and the remembering self. A renowned cold water experiment illustrates this internal conflict in a highly painful and revealing manner.

Subjects had to submerge their hands in ice-cold water, with the short variant lasting exactly 60 seconds of continuous discomfort. The longer variant comprised those same 60 seconds, but was extended by an additional 30 seconds with slightly warmed water to create a different sensory profile. The experiencing self logically perceived the longer phase as more agonizing, since it contained more minutes of pure pain. Yet, when the participants were later allowed to choose their preferred scenario, the vast majority decided on the longer procedure.

The Rule of the Peak and the End in Medical Procedures

The remembering self ignores the pure duration of a torment and evaluates events exclusively based on their peak intensity and their final moments. Since the water was slightly warmer at the end of the longer phase, the memory stored the entire episode as significantly less severe. This principle determines our entire behavior, ranging from the choice of vacation destinations to the evaluation of complex medical procedures. Medical professionals therefore face the dilemma of whether to design a procedure to be short and intense, or long with a mild and comforting ending.

In colonoscopy studies, it became apparent that 154 patients remembered a longer examination with a gentle fade-out as significantly less traumatic. The pure sum of the suffered pain played absolutely no role for the later evaluation of the procedure by the individuals involved. Medical personnel instinctively utilize this psychological mechanism by handing out a sweet reward after a painful vaccination to alter the memory trace. The few seconds of joy at the end overwrite the minutes of fear and physical suffering in the memory of the patient.

The Biological Overwriting of Pain and the Dominance of Memory

Nature has already anchored this trick of memory falsification in the biology of humanity since ancient times to ensure the continuation of the species. The extreme pain of childbirth would, from the perspective of the experiencing self, make any further renunciation of offspring appear completely logical and necessary. However, the hormonal system releases messenger substances at the end of labor that overshadow the terrible experience and generate a profound feeling of euphoria. Studies with 2428 individuals who gave birth prove that they completely ignore the total duration of labor and retrospectively evaluate the birth as a highly positive event.

The dominance of the remembering self becomes particularly clear when we imagine hypothetical vacation scenarios and evaluate their potential outcomes. If one had the choice between a historical trip to an old colonial city and an absolute dream vacation in a famous desert city, where all memories would be deleted at the end, most would choose the more boring option. Without the possibility of producing stories for the memory, the pure experience loses its value for most people in modern society. We willingly sacrifice immediate happiness in the here and now for a good narrative in our personal biography.

The Mutual Influence of Identity Levels and Societal Constructs

Despite this separation, the experiencing and the remembering self are closely intertwined and influence each other mutually in our daily lives. The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves color our actual physical sensations in everyday life, altering how we perceive reality. Hunger feels completely different depending on whether it results from religious devotion or financial distress, showcasing the power of the narrative. Nevertheless, the experiencing self often triumphs over the good intentions of the remembering self when it comes to daily comfort and immediate gratification.

In the end, people almost exclusively identify with their remembering self and consider its fictions to be the absolute and undeniable truth. We firmly believe in our uninterrupted identity from birth to death, even though this identity consists only of incomplete and constantly rewritten narratives. This insistence on a fictional unity forms the foundation of our entire societal and political order, dictating how we structure our laws and institutions. The belief in the indivisible individual thus remains a necessary construct that radically contradicts the biological reality of the polyphonic organism.