From classical times, it has been known that the human brain has two distinct ways of thinking and knowing. Many scientists, intellectuals, and authors have given names to these two types of intelligence or cognitive styles. Some examples are:
| Left Brain | Right Brain | |
| Maslow | Rational | Intuitive |
| Bruner | Rational | Metaphoric |
| Koestler | Associative Thinking | Bisociative Thinking |
| De Bono | Vertical | Horizontal or Lateral |
| Bronowski | Deductive | Imaginative |
| Shopenhauer | Objective | Subjective |
| Freud | Secondary Process | Primary Process |
| Jung | Causal | Acausel |
| Langer | Discursive Symbolism | Presentational Symbolism |
| Neisser | Sequential Processing | Multiple Processing |
| Kubie | Conscious Processing | Preconscious Processing |
Whatever they are labeled, the effective use of these two distinctive processes is vital for all creative human thought and production. Artists, scientists, engineers, business persons, entrepreneurs, inventors, etc.--everyone depends on the full functions of the human brain for success.
In the 1950's, a group of neuroscientists and physicians in California surgically divided the two hemispheres of the brain by cutting apart the millions of nerve connections referred to as the corpus callosum. In some subject adults, it was found that there are two very distinct processes that each have a functional "home" in one hemisphere of the brain or another. One scientist, Dr. Roger Sperry, won the Nobel Prize for medicine for his study of these "divided brain" patients.
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