''The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World'' is a 2009 book written by psychiatrist

Iain McGilchrist Iain McGilchrist (born 1953) is a psychiatrist, writer, and former Oxford literary scholar. McGilchrist came to prominence after the publication of his book ''The Master and His Emissary'', subtitled ''The Divided Brain and the Making of the West ...

that deals with the specialist hemispheric functioning of the brain. The differing world views of the right and left brain (the "Master" and "Emissary" in the title, respectively) have, according to the author, shaped Western culture since the time of the ancient Greek philosopher

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

, and the growing conflict between these views has implications for the way the modern world is changing. In part, McGilchrist's book, which is the product of twenty years of research, reviews the evidence of previous related research and theories, and based on this and cultural evidence, the author arrives at his own conclusions. ''The Master and His Emissary'' received mixed reviews upon its publication. Some critics praised the book as being a landmark publication that could alter readers' perspective of how they viewed the world. Other critics claimed neurological understanding of hemispheric differences falls short of supporting the sweeping conclusions the book draws about Western culture. ''The Master and His Emissary'' was shortlisted for the 2010

Bristol Festival of Ideas The Bristol Festival of Ideas is a project established in Bristol, England, which aims "to stimulate people’s minds and passions with an inspiring programme of discussion and debate". and was longlisted for the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

2010 Prize for Science Books.

Background and influences

In an interview with ''Frontier Psychiatrist'', McGilchrist cites two main influences on his work: the psychiatrist John Cutting, and the Chicago psychologist

David McNeill Glenn David McNeill (born 1933 in California, United States) is an Americans, American psychologist and Author, writer specializing in Research#Scientific research, scientific research into psycholinguistics and especially the relationship of ...

. McGilchrist states: "What I began to see – and it was John Cutting's work on the right hemisphere that set me thinking – was that the difference lay not in what they he two hemispheresdo, but how they do it." In the same interview, the author explains: "Some very subtle research by David McNeill, amongst others, confirms that thought originates in the right hemisphere, is processed for expression in speech by the left hemisphere, and the meaning integrated again by the right (which alone understands the overall meaning of a complex utterance, taking everything into account)."

Synopsis

The 608-page book is about the specialist hemispheric functioning of the brain. The differing world views of the right and left brain (the "Master" and "Emissary" in the title, respectively) have, according to the author, shaped Western culture since the time of the

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

, and the growing conflict between these views has implications for the way the modern world is changing. The book is divided into an introduction, two parts and a conclusion. In the introduction, McGilchrist states that "there is, literally, a world of difference between the

rain Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...

hemispheres. Understanding quite what that is has involved a journey through many apparently unrelated areas: not just neurology and psychology, but philosophy, literature and the arts, and even, to some extent, archaeology and anthropology."

Part One: The Divided Brain

In "The Divided Brain", McGilchrist digests study after study, replacing the popular and superficial notion of the hemispheres as respectively logical and creative in nature with the idea that they pay attention in fundamentally different ways, the left being detail-oriented, the right being whole-oriented. These two modes of perception cascade into wildly different hemispheric personalities, and in fact reflect yet a further asymmetry in their status, that of the right's more immediate relationship with physical bodies (our own as well as others) and external reality as represented by the senses, a relationship that makes it the mediator, the first and last stop, of all experience.

Part Two: How the Brain Has Shaped Our World

In the second part, "How the Brain Has Shaped Our World", the author describes the evolution of Western culture, as influenced by hemispheric brain functioning, from the ancient world, through the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

and

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

; the Enlightenment;

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

and

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

; to the modern and

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

worlds which, to our detriment, are becoming increasingly dominated by the left brain.

Reception

The book received mixed reviews in various newspapers and journals. Reviewing ''The Master and His Emissary'' in the ''

American Journal of Psychiatry ''The American Journal of Psychiatry'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of psychiatry, and is the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association. The first volume was issued in 1844, at which time it was k ...

'', Jacob Freedman wrote the book “valiantly addresses the effect hemispheric asymmetry has had on Western civilization" and that it chronicled "how the left brain's determined

reductionism Reductionism is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena which can be described in terms of other simpler or more fundamental phenomena. It is also described as an intellectual and philosophical pos ...

and the right brain's insightful and holistic approach have shaped music, language, politics, and art." A review by

Bryan Appleyard Bryan Appleyard (born 24 August 1951, Manchester) is a British journalist and author. Life and work Appleyard was educated at Bolton School and King's College, Cambridge. He worked at ''The Times'' and as a freelance journalist and has writte ...

in ''

Times Online ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' described the book as suggesting "we are thinking more and more like machines, and risk losing what makes us human", while David Cox in the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' wrote that the author "shows convincingly that the degeneracy of the West springs from our failure to manage the binary division of our brains." In a positive review in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', philosopher

Mary Midgley Mary Beatrice Midgley (' Scrutton; 13 September 1919 – 10 October 2018) was a British philosopher. A senior lecturer in philosophy at Newcastle University, she was known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights. She wrote her first b ...

wrote that the book "points out the complexity, the divided nature of thought itself and asks about its connection with the structure of the brain", and that "though neurologists may well not welcome it because it asks them new questions, the rest of us will surely find it splendidly thought-provoking". In another positive review in '' Standpoint'' magazine, Professor Adam Zeman wrote that McGilchrist "extends hereceived wisdom with a hugely ambitious, absorbing and questionable thesis: the two hemispheres have radically contrasting personalities; that they live in a state of creative tension, sometimes declining into open war; and that their struggle for supremacy provides the key to understanding the major cultural movements of human history. In ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...

'', W. F. Bynum wrote: "McGilchrist's careful analysis of how brains work is a veritable tour de force, gradually and skilfully revealed. I know of no better exposition of the current state of functional brain neuroscience." In a mixed review in ''

Literary Review ''Literary Review'' is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at the University of Edinburgh. Its offices are on Lexington Street in Soho. The magazine was edited for fourteen years by v ...

'', A. C. Grayling wrote that the book was "beautifully written, erudite, fascinating and adventurous", but added that "the findings of brain science are nowhere near fine-grained enough yet to support the large psychological and cultural conclusions Iain McGilchrist draws". A negative review in ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'' stated that the book resorted to "generalisations of breathtaking sweep" and that the second part of the book "has plainly become untethered from its moorings in brain science". Likewise, Michael Corbalis said of the work, that "Although widely acclaimed, this book goes far beyond the neurological facts."Corbalis, 2014
Left Brain, Right Brain: Facts and Fantasies
PLoS One.

Owen Flanagan Owen Flanagan (born 1949) is the James B. Duke University Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Professor of Neurobiology Emeritus at Duke University. Flanagan has done work in philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of social s ...

alleged many shortcomings of the book and delivered a dismissive statement: "The fact is, hemispheric differences are not well understood. Neither are patterns over 2,500 years of western history. Trying to explain the ill-understood latter with a caricature of the former does little to illuminate either". McGilchrist wrote scathingly of this review, saying: "But anyone who has read my book and reads that review will realise what a shameful piece of writing it is", picking on what he alleges to be evidence of superficiality and misrepresentation. The book has inspired a documentary, ''The Divided Brain'', authorised by McGilchrist.

Bibliography

Notes

External links

Brain Matters: The divided mind. Has our civilisation suffered from a failure to manage the binary division of our brains?
Talk given by McGilchrist at the

Wellcome Collection Wellcome Collection is a museum and library based at 183 Euston Road, London, displaying a mixture of medical artefacts and original artworks exploring "ideas about the connections between medicine, life and art". Founded in 2007, the Wellcome C ...

in April 2012
Author's profile at All Souls College, University of Oxford

The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
RSA Keynote by Iain McGilchrist

Further study

Essays

Interviews

* A transcript is also available. * A transcript is also available. * * *

Lectures

* Parts of this lecture were republished by the RSA in October 2011 as one of a series of "RSA Animates" with cartoonist Andrew Park's illustrations. The twelve-minute animation accompanying McGilchrist's talk took Park two months to complete. * * *

Documentaries

Divided Brain''
documentary (2019)

Other reviews

* * * Translation: "Study: right and left cerebral hemispheres have opposite personalities." * Vernon, a writer, journalist and columnist with ''

'', writes: "At last! A book on neuroscience that is a thrilling read, philosophically astute and with wonderful science." * * * *