Western culture is full of references to double personalities such as Doctor Jekyll/Mr Hyde and the Hulk/Bruce Banner, which have been so successful because we can all relate to a certain extent with the duality within each of us and our battles with inner demons.

What I am going to explore is the potential background or backdrop to this, something more subtle but also more profound, and which results in what could be called in simplistic terms the double personality present in all of us.

I will start from the position that we are genetically made up from differing proportions of our ancestral human DNA. I don’t pretend to know enough about anthropology to state categorically which human ancestors are the culprits – there are I think at least 10 important human sub-species from our past – and there is probably some DNA from many or even all of them in each of us.

For the sake of simplicity, and to introduce the idea, I am going to focus on the most obvious separation within us.

You will hopefully be familiar with the distinction between rational and irrational (intuitive) thought, “thinking fast and slow”, long term and short-term thinking, being good with our hands or our heads, and how we tend to be closer to one end of the spectrum rather than the other.

From what I have read, our Neanderthal ancestors were a creative and exploratory bunch whereas the closely related Denisovan were significantly less laid back and more straight-laced.

As I say, the names might be different, and the exact method may not be as I say, but my theory is that from a genetic point of view we contain a bit of the Neanderthal DNA which is intuitive/instinctive/irrational and always wanting to explore and a bit of Denisovan DNA which is rational and not willing to take risks.

What probably happened in general terms was our Neanderthal cousins mated with our Denisovan cousins and the result was broadly what we see today in our Caucasian family – a combination of the intuitive and rational. Our current sub-species Homo sapiens survived because we are a combination of the best bits of our ancestors. (I can’t really speak about any other races of people for the simple reason my family and friends tend to be white and it is from these I draw my observations.)

In the UK we differentiate people by class to a significant extent. Obviously, all Western cultures have people split into “workers” and “leaders” but for some reason we are the only country to make it explicit and own up to the fact.

My point is every single one of us has both these personalities within us but some of us have one that is more dominant than the other. Personally, I think I sit in the middle of this particular spectrum and don’t seem to thrive as a “leader” or a “worker”, but most people do tend to swing one way rather than the other and it is from this we have historically got our working and middle classes.

The most important thing to consider I think is just because the intuitive genes are dominant in us (for example), there are very few of us who do not have some proportion of rational genes.

The reason our sub-species has been so successful in driving out all the competition is we combine rational thinking with intuitive actions. I think it likely the intuitive Neanderthal and rational Denisovan survived successfully in their own way, even when they crossed paths, until they began mating with each other and their offspring turned out to be far superior.

One thing I have learnt over the past year is just because personally I might be slightly rational-dominant in my genetic makeup, it doesn’t mean I am not creative and do not have the ability to train up and learn how to use the more intuitive side of my personality.

The same goes the other way. There are plenty of people who are intuitive-dominant and can suffer in the modern world as a result (which I think is getting biased towards rational-dominant people) but this doesn’t mean they can’t learn how to utilise the rational side of their personality and make good decisions.

I do happen to think rational-dominant people are in the ascendancy and are changing the world to suit the way they think. This is evident in everything from the way technology such as mobiles are now a necessity for everyday living; voting in elections is more complicated than ever with ranks and rounds of voting needlessly complicating things; our focus on written exams and certain ways of teaching and testing at the exclusion of others; the gradual disappearance of “working class” jobs; and elitism in music where certain forms and styles are valued over others.

And there will come a time in the future when robots can be used to do the things we used to require intuitive-dominant people for. We can see it in the fact we need fewer soldiers today and some jobs are already being automated.

The intuitive-dominant among us have only survived this long because we need people to act in customer services and as cleaners, carers, nurses, soldiers, plumbers, electricians and drivers etc. How long will it be before the rational-dominant people ensure they no longer have to rely on the workers and can fully automate and mechanise everything they can’t or won’t do?

I think we would all be better served if we recognised how our brains are wired and how dependent we are on the genes we are born with, but also how complicated things are – nothing is black and white when it comes to our brains and it’s certainly not a case of just being at one point on a spectrum because there is a whole web of many shades of personality traits and dispositions, and we all have our own unique position on it. The trick is for each of us recognise our position and accept it, and for society at large to ensure everyone (regardless of their position) can live a dignified and fulfilling life.