Could the technology in Severance soon become reality?

What would you give for work to never cross your mind? To really clock off and clock out at the end of the day? To eradicate the urge to check your emails, prepare for the next day ahead or juggle the mental load of your personal home life with the non-stop to-do list at work? That’s the premise of Apple TV+’s Severance. 

Created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller, the series follows Mark S (Adam Scott) who has undergone a medical procedure called ‘severance’ to split his memory (and identity) in two: the personal ‘outie’ and the professional ‘innie’. The innie has no conscious memory of the outie’s life, who in turn only exists outside of work with no memory of what his innie did during his nine-to-five. They switch (predominantly) in Lumon’s elevator lift, leaning into the psychological phenomenon of ‘the doorway effect’ where you walk through a door to another room and forget what you came in for. 

It’s unsurprising that Severance has been described as “the series for our times”. In recent post-pandemic years, society has taken a decidedly anti-work turn: thousands quit their jobs during the Great Resignation of 2021, Kim Kardashian quipped that “nobody wants to work these days” in 2022, and TikTok’s recent ‘lazy girl job’ trend advocated for seeking out stress-free roles which require no brainpower. Many Severance viewers, desperate for a better work-life balance, have half-joked about wanting to be severed. But could the severance procedure ever become a reality?

According to Dr Vijay Agarwal, the neurosurgeon who consulted on the show, we’re actually “pretty close”. Agarwal made his on-screen debut in season one as the scientist who performs the procedure on Helly (Britt Lower), and says his performance on the show is “quite accurate” and “similar” to real-life surgeries that he performs today. While the real world science is at an “earlier stage” than seen in Severance, he stresses that the science we see on the show is grounded in real logic. “I do think we are just starting to unlock even a little of the brain’s potential, and we’ll likely see major advances in our ability to modify the brain and its function in the near future,” he says. 

Agarwal adds that in recent years we’ve seen significant advances in brain science, such as Elon Musk’s Neuralink chip and Synchron. While these technologies don’t directly divide the brain in two, they implant their own ‘chips’ to “modify, enhance, or replace function” in the brain. “These technologies are part of a group called brain-computer interface devices,” he explains. “There have been decades of research that has gone into this. We are just now seeing these technologies successfully be implanted and used in the brain.”

Scientists have also successfully implanted electrodes in the brain to stimulate and modify the brain’s function, which is being explored as a treatment for substance abuse, mental health disorders and even obesity. “Imagine something that works like Ozempic, but implanted in the brain,” Agarwal says. “What is interesting about this area of the brain, the medial temporal lobe, is that it really links your emotions to many of the other brain abilities, from your memories to your ability to learn.”

We’ll likely see major advances in our ability to modify the brain and its function in the near future

Since the 1940s, there have been ‘split-brain’ patients where scientists would perform surgery to separate the right and left hemispheres of the brain to see if the patient’s consciousness could be ‘split’ or ‘doubled.’ The research found that these ‘split-brain’ patients could often process information differently in each half of their brain, creating ‘double conscious processes’ or two minds living inside one head.

There’s evidence of conflict in split-brain patients between their left and right hemispheres, similar to the conflict between Helly the ‘innie’ – a rebel who wants to quit Lumon and frequently attempts to break company rules – and Helena the ‘outie’ – the obedient daughter of Lumon CEO Jame Eagan. Scientists also found that though the two hemispheres were ‘split’ in these patients, memories could bleed through when a patient was writing and could remember what his other ‘consciousness’ said. Again, this isn’t dissimilar to Irving’s (John Turturro) ‘outie’ painting long, dark hallways leading to a lift, reminiscent of the halls of Lumon that his ‘innie’ sees every day. 

But while many of us joke about wanting to be severed, would it really be a good idea to rend our work lives and our personal lives completely apart? Psychologist Dr Jade Thomas believes there would be benefits to the procedure, such as the positive impact it may have on our social lives and mental health if the toxic work stressors were forgotten. “Many of us often struggle with work-life balance due to the ability to constantly check emails or messages, which can impact how present we are in our personal life,” she explains.

But she’s sceptical of whether severance would really be a good idea. “Ultimately the goal would be for both elements of life to co-exist in order to maintain a healthy balance,” Dr Thomas explains. “It’s not necessarily about dividing your time perfectly 50/50 between work and personal life, but about feeling satisfied in both areas of your life.” 

The show itself is critical of the procedure. It suggests that it’s dangerous to disengage from work completely, as it’s heavily implied that the employees on the severed floor are being coerced to work on something pretty sinister. Plus, a 2021 study found that workers who felt their jobs were ‘pointless’ suffered with higher rates of depression and anxiety – so it’s unlikely being severed and having no idea what you did all day would really make you happy.

We shouldn’t aspire to ‘forget’ about work altogether – instead, we should aspire to find meaningful work that offers a sense of fulfilment and purpose, and that doesn’t encroach or overload your brain to the extent that it consumes your entire life. With a growing number of four-day week trials and employers growing increasingly attuned to the importance of a work-life balance, perhaps we’re – thankfully – heading towards a world where the severance procedure isn’t even covetable anymore.