Analytical Thought

This is the name that I give to the type of processing which occurs in the left hemisphere, used by Teacher and Server thought.

It has the following features:

• It works with sequences. Elements are assembled and strung together like cars in a train. These ‘trains’ can also be taken apart, and then reassembled with the cars in different order, like the operation of a train switching yard.
• It steps through sequences. It likes to walk through a sequence one step at a time, without jumping here and there.
• It is linear. It does not do several things at once. Instead, it prefers to do one sequence at a time. It hates to be interrupted in the middle of a sequence, especially with something that is irrelevant.
• It is concerned primarily with time. Because we live in a spatial universe, most sequences occur over time.
• It builds structure. It is good at assembling elements together. It is not as good at seeing which elements are out of place.
• It focuses upon change. It looks for movement, transitions, changes from one state to another. In other words it works with consonants and not vowels.

You can find a much longer discussion about mental symmetry in general and the relationship between analytic and associative thought here.