Power, the Brain & me - Suzanne Alleyne

“What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?” - Tony Benn

My name is Suzanne and I'm a cultural thinker, a term I coined to describe my work that covers me as a strategist, a researcher and a conversational artist.

I’m a Black British neurodivergent female with multiple mental health diagnosis, UK born in 1965. Around 2016/17 I went through a really hard time professionally and felt really powerless. It got me thinking more deeply about the challenges I was facing, alongside those I saw in the world - many were underpinned by power dynamics with society, communities and relationships, and how these dynamics are sometimes fixed and sometimes able to shift. I’d also always felt that any success I’ve had has been because I believe when power is divested it benefits everyone. This thinking led me to one concise question:

Where does power reside in the brain and the body, and how might knowing the answer help to create a more equitable society.

On a mission to find the answer, I started ploughing through research papers only to find that social neuroscientists. hadn’t yet figured it out - so I decided to research it myself and in 2017 I birthed Neurology of Power ™.

In this blog I’m going to share with you the stand out things I’ve learned so far, as well as how they impact the work myself and my organisation do. The first and most important gem is that power, and our relationship to it, affects our every interaction; simply put power affects everything - 24/7.

Professor Sukhvinder Obhi is a Social Neuroscientist who I have had the privilege to be in conversation with through my research. He offered my favourite definition of power. “Power is your ability to influence the states of other people.”

Although, there is not yet an answer to my big question ‘Where does power reside in the brain and the body?’, what we do know is that often (not always) holding more power (think role, position and status) can result in decreased empathy.

“When you have power, that gives you access to resources, and resources are rewarding. The more resources you have, the more doors are opened, the more rewards you have.” Professor Suhkvinder Obhi

I’ve also worked with a neurologist Dr Jerome Lubbe and he got me thinking about neuroplasticity which is the way in which the brain is able to learn. Jerome gives an analogy about a bear - saying that our brains often can’t tell the difference between a deadline and a bear chasing us. Not only does that mean that changing our behaviour is tricky because it is emotionally difficult, it connects back to the conversation with Sukhvinder who explained that part of learning is about “associating actions with consequences” simply put and in my words, if the environment you are in rewards you for your actions, you will keep doing the actions, and if you live in a environment or world where you perceive threat (and need to be constantly vigilant) then you will behave differently. Which in the context of power and behaviour feels huge. If I feel rewarded through “poor” or “morally reprehensible” behaviour, I’m likely to feel more powerful and continue… I’ll leave you to connect the dots.

As a lay person, I realised quickly that it was necessary for me to familiarise myself with the basic makeup of the brain and how it operates, so that I was able to contextualise within Neurology of Power. Professor Lisa Feldman Barrett, author of “Seven and a Half Lessons About The Brain”, broke down some complex thinking into simple takeaways!

Body Budgeting. Otherwise known as allostasis, is all about how our nervous system operates with the priority of keeping us alive. Simply put, to excel in its role, the nervous system budgets its resources - so for every effort it puts in, it wants something back.

If we think of this concept in terms of a shopping budget, if we spent £100, we want a weekly shop, or £100 worth of food. But here’s the kicker - as well as depositing and withdrawing from our own body, we can also impact others close by by depositing and withdrawing from their nervous systems - wild right?

One of the main tools the nervous system uses to decrease it’s spend ie. reduce its effort, is prediction. This means that when we think we are encountering a situation with fresh eyes and thinking, in actual fact our brain is making light speed predictions, based on past experiences.

So, when I combine all the information shared above, I understand another important point which Sukhvinder shared with me…

“Power by itself is neither good nor bad… but power, unfortunately, is one of these things that can be weaponised – maybe unintentionally, sometimes maybe unwittingly.” Professor Sukhvinder Obhi

“Where does power reside in the brain and the body, and how might knowing the answer help to create a more equitable society.”

There’s another layer I’d like to add to the learning in this context, and that’s around the western world, or very precisely Great Britain - the country I was born in and have lived in for most of my life. I just can’t think about power without considering the impact of Britain’s instrumental role in empire and colonialism. In my opinion, this atrocity was all about exerting power over years, to benefit the heighty few, and heartbreakingly the impact of this inhumanness is still being felt by many today.

I’m often met with a version of “yes, but it was a long time ago” and/or ‘I’m also struggling with …”

These reactions or responses led me to coin the term “feudal democracy” which I describe as England’s way of being a democracy that consciously or unconsciously allows a few in power to exert and benefit from the masses.

Let me take a breath here. To be honest I could blog about this for days, so I’m glad I was given a word count! Before I offer my conclusion, I have one last important consideration…

Everything I’ve talked about so far - the experience and my research - has been written through the lens and against the gaze of western perspective. Here in ‘the west’ it feels like in general, we gain power over, or at the expense of, others. The more people and decisions we can exert power over, the more powerful we become.

A significant part of my research has been working with land based and/or indigenous communities and they have wowed me with their compassionate and refreshing ideology. These communities think about power completely differently than ‘we’ do. First and foremost power for them is most often something for the benefit of the collective and to be used in partnership with respecting humans, other life forces and the earth. For many indigineous communities, any decisions have to consider ancestors seven years back and seven years of future generations, as well as the planet. I wonder what would happen if we adopted even a fragment of this approach.

In closing, I’ll leave you with this; when I started to connect the dots between all the information and points I’ve shared with you - what we currently know about power and its relationship to empathy, about how our brains work, about the colonialism and about my concept of feudal democracy, I realise it’s such a lot to hold together. However, I hope that having some understanding of how our brains and bodies work and being able to break complex ideas down into bite sized chunks, will help us to individually and collectively make some changes in how we behave, think about and use power.

Want to read more:

Lisa Feldman Barrett - lots for free on the internet, I also particularly recommend her book, Seven and a Half Lessons About The Brain

Sukhvinder Obhi https://neurologyofpower.com/2021/09/27/a-conversation-with-professor-sukhvinder-obhi/

About the author:

Suzanne is the founder of Alleyne& Consultancy. She is a leader with complex access needs requiring some support to produce her work. This piece was edited by SJ Martins. Find out more:

www.alleyneand.com

www.allaboutpower.org

Twitter and instagram @alleyneand.com