The Chimp Paradox

Steve Peters

Peters simplifies the amygdala and the pre frontal cortex into a chimp (emotional) and the human (logical). Every person has these two things trying to steer their mind. The chimp (emotion) is much stronger than a human (logic) and often we respond to events with emotion as a reflex - with the chimp also being responsible for our subconcsious.

What Peters aims to do is inform you on the ability to get these two parts of your brain working together. He does this by training you to get your chimp to talk - or as Peters puts it 'voicing the chimp'. The goal is to get the chimp to tell you what it is thinking and why it is feeling this way. This will tire the chimp out, and leave room for the human to logically respond to the situation.

"There are two yous. The chimp and the human." How do each respond to a situation? For example, if you get cut off while driving get the chimp to explain to the human what it was feeling. It may say I felt scared and threatened. That person just cut into my territory. I need to defend it. Send in the adrenaline. Then the human would say, it's okay. We're safe now. We're in a safe car, with airbags and no harm was done.

Voicing the chimp will help neutralise the situation.