The Inner Workings of Chekhov Lizardbrain

Chekhov Lizardbrain pulls inspiration from the "Three Brain" theory of Paul D. MacLean, with a tip of its hat to doctor/playwright Anton Chekhov and autistic author/ slaughterhouse-designer Temple Grandin. To learn more about the inner workings of Chekhov Lizardbrain read on.


The “Triune Brain Theory”

Chekhov Lizardbrain draws in part from Paul D. MacLean’s "Triune Brain Theory." MacLean noticed that when the human brain is dissected and the neocortex pulled away, one discovers a "paleomammalian" layer beneath it, a brain that looks almost identical to a pig’s brain or a dog’s brain. If one continues to cut deeper into the brain, one finds a “lizard brain” in the form of the human brain stem. MacLean posited that each "brain" represents a different layer of neurological evolution, and that these older, deeper layers control our most basic functions. So the "reptilian brain" controls breathing, sleeping, hunger, the startle response; the "paleomammalian brain" is responsible for emotions, connections between mother and child and by extension between individuals, hierarchies and some kinds of territorial behavior; and the "neomammalian brain," our large neocortex, contains the wiring for symbolic thinking, self-awareness, ambivalence and language.

Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov, the Russian dramatist and doctor famed for his masterful short stories, practiced medicine throughout his career. His works often feature doctors and scientists – some competent and some not-so-competent – in search of a deeper truth about life and love. "Medicine is my lawful wife," he once said, "and literature is my mistress." Pig Iron’s four-man performance is very loosely based on Chekhov’s Three Sisters, and the company pulls from the Russian doctor’s stories of social convention and territorial struggle in a decidedly 21st-century update of Chekhov’s quest to unravel the absurdities of human behavior.

Temple Grandin’s Animals in Translation

In her recent bestseller Animals in Translation, autistic author Temple Grandin proposes that her own empathy with animals comes from a compromised "human brain" and a compensating "dog brain" and "lizard brain" – "And," she adds, “here's the really interesting part: each one of those brains has its own kind of intelligence, its own sense of time and space, its own memory, and its own subjectivity."



Read more about Chekhov Lizardbrain on Le Pigblog