Stan Gooch
Biography (external link) | Biography (external link)
Current Situation and appeal for help (external link)
"Total Man"
Review (external link)
Biography (external link) | Biography (external link)
Current Situation and appeal for help (external link)
A very comprehensive psychological theory of polarity and symbolism, explaining such polarity in consciousness in terms of the different parts of the brain and nervous system, has been propounded by the English psychologist Stan Gooch, beginning in his book Total Man.
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art |
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(Labour, Communism) |
(Fascism) |
One of the most fascinating things about Gooch's list is his identification of the political spectrum with his polarities. The left-wing, with it's more "feminine" (nuturing) ideals of compassion and equality, really does belong to the feminine (left-hand) polarity.
Further symbolism is suggested on the following page with the following pairs of archetypes:
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Of course it doesnt take much effort to see here the Chinese polar opposites of Yin and Yang!
The B-system can in turn be divided into a "good" or light asexual side and a "bad" or dark sexual sensual side (which brings in religious symbolism as well):
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fear |
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active |
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Once again, paralells with Yin and Yang (Taoism), Shakti and Shiva (Tantra), Gevurah and Hesed (Kabbalah)
Gooch argues that this polarity can be traced back to the structure of the brain and nervous system. According to him, the brain and central nervous system generats the A polarity, and the Cerebellum (part of the "old brain") and the Autonomous nervous system generates the B-consciousness.
By the far the best of Gooch's books, in my opinion, is his first one, Total Man, now (like it seems all his books) unfortunately out of print. His follow ups Personality and evolution : the biology of the divided self, and The double helix of the mind were along the same theme but nothing original that was not in Total Man (apart from his criticism of Roger Sperry's Right - Left brain theory). Then he got into things like the paranormal and anomalies (The Paranormal, and Creatures from Inner Space - such phenomena pertaining to the or "system B" consciousness ) , and the Neanderthal question (arguing that Neanderthals represent the feminine or "system B" consciousness), which again is introduced in Total Man. Personally I don't find these more specialised studied of his nearly as interesring as his original basic hypothesis regarding structure of the brain and nervous system.
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Stan Gooch home page
Colin Wilson talks about the achievements of author Stan Gooch
Almost 25 years ago Total Man was a book that deeply impressed and inspired both myself and a friend when we at La Trobe University doing philosophy. I was therefore shocked to recently hear of Dr Gooch's present situation. He is currently penniless, living in a rented caravan, with no money, no contacts apart from only three people, no family, no telephone and no computer. All he wants is the opportunity to complete a final opus drawing together everything he has written. If you can help in any way, please write to
Even simple correspondence would be welcome.