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Theodore Roethke's attention was caught by an article in which mammals were characterized as preferring to receive loving attention
while reptiles were described as more inclined to give it. He was inspired to write a playful poem, "For an Amorous Lady," about the giving and receiving of love in his own relationship with a woman, presumably Louise Bogan. The poem ends, somewhat ambiguously, or perhaps ambivalently, as follows:
You are, in truth, one in a million,At once mammalian and reptilian.
Paul MacLean, the celebrated neurosurgical investigator who has contributed so much to our understanding of human brain structure and functioning, would say that this applies not only to Roethke's lover but to all of us. We all are "at once mammalian and reptilian." In two brief, overlapping chapters, MacLean presents his concept of human triune brain hierarchy, with its three successive drivers of the basic aggressive and appetitive behaviors that mediate preservation both of the individual and of the species.
The first and most primitive is the reptilian complex or R-complex that induces and regulates the aggressive attack behaviors and the courtship patterns that unite in violent combat behavior with reproductive rivals. It also mediates the specific imitative, preservative, re-enactment, tropistic, and deceptive behavior patterns that identify individuals as belonging to a particular species. He links these various behavior patterns with the basic human drives postulated in psychoanalytic theory.
The second is the paleomammalian complex, or limbic system, surrounding the reptilian-derived brain stem structures of lower animals. It ties basic "reptilian" response patterns to emotional feelings, which are closely connected with olfactory and oral functions, and to genital and procreative functions. These mediate feeding, fighting, and self-protection, on the one hand, and attention to and protective care of the young (including protection of them from the pare