Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock

Why are the Star Trek movies and TV series with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock so popular?  And what have they to do with psychology?  After watching the new Star Trek sequel for the umpteenth time, I have realized that the Kirk/Spock duo represents many of the dualities that all of us experience in our own brains.  Kirk is more intuitive (right side of the brain), and Spock is more linear in his logic (left sided).  Kirk is more impulsive (limbic system), and Spock more restrained (frontal lobe executive functioning).  Kirk is more emotional (again limbic system), and Spock is again more restrained. 

Of course, Kirk would make a lousy starship captain if he were only a limbic system with a little bit of right sided neocortex.  But still, he and Spock clearly embody the conflict(s) that occur between different parts of the brain. Perhaps one of the reasons why we enjoy watching them so much is that we experience these conflicts every day of our lives.  In each situation, we have to decide whether to respond out of logic or out of emotion. 

From a neuroscience point of view, the question is whether we only get to use one part of our brain at a time, or whether we get to "have it all"?  That is, does one part of brain have to win out over the other part in each situation?  Or do we get to integrate the different parts so that "all of us" gets to participate in different situations? Ideally, we get to integrate the different parts so that "all of us" gets to participate in any situation.

It is interesting that in the sequel, Kirk lands at the top of the hierarchy once again.  We wouldn't have it any other way would we?  We don't want to lose our humanity--our emotions and the ability to act slightly impulsively at times.  But the whole sequel movie is a conflict.  It is not resolved quickly and easily.  And maybe our brains are relishing every moment of the conflict, then getting to observe a nice neat resolution at the end.  We, however, don't have a nice neat resolution.  We continue to struggle every day of our lives trying to figure out just how we are going to resolve the conflicts inherent in our own brains.