Princess Amy Explained

"Off with his head!"

-- Queen of Hearts, Alice in Wonderland


Deep inside the brain, there is a region that's known to be the center of intense emotion or, as I like to call them, the emotions of survival. Known as the limbic system, its job is to identify potential threats and then kick-start responses to deal with them. 

Princess Amy


The amygdala (uh - MIG - duh - luh) is just one of the named regions of the limbic system and its job is to work with other structures to regulate mood. For example, the amygdala interacts with the prefrontal cortex to generate and process the major emotions of anger, happiness, disgust, surprise, sadness, and particularly fear.

My amygdala can be quite dramatic. I think of her as a spoiled little brat who throws tantrums when she doesn’t get her way. I call her Princess Amy. Amy has a lot in common with the Queen of Hearts in the Lewis Carroll story, Alice Through the Looking Glass. 

That queen is the ruthless ruler of Wonderland. She is happy only when she wins and she always plays by her own rules. When she disapproves of someone's behavior, she yells, "Off with his head!" Once when Alice was running as fast as she possibly could to escape the chess pieces chasing her across the game board, the queen challenged her to "Run faster!" 

Princess Amy does the same. "Run for your life!" is one of her favorite commands. And just like the Queen of Hearts, she sometimes screams “Off with their heads!” In every case the only person in danger of losing his head is me.

The Queen of Hearts is despised and avoided by all the inhabitants of Wonderland because they live in fear of her. But I know that Princess Amy isn't really a despot. She actually has my best interests at heart. It's just that, like me, she's afraid that we're going to fail at life too. Instead of fearing her, I try to remember to show compassion. It helps in this regard to think of her as a frumpy little bluebird who is cute and funny even when she's hotted-up to the point of incandescence. Then I can simply say, "Chill, Amy. Everything is OK. I've got this."