An interview with Iain McGilchrist

Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist and writer who lives on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. He is author of ‘The Master and his Emissary – The Divided Brain and The Making Of The Western World.

McGilchrist's other interests include the relationship between creativity and mental illness, and he is currently working on a number of books: a critique of contemporary society and culture from the standpoint of neuropsychology; a study of the paintings of subjects with schizophrenia; a series of essays about culture and the brain with subjects from Andrew Marvell to Serge Gainsbourg; and a short book of reflections on spiritual experience.

He is committed to the idea that the mind and brain can be understood only by seeing them in the broadest possible context, that of the whole of our physical and spiritual existence, and of the wider human culture in which they arise – the culture which helps to mould, and in turn is moulded by, our minds and brains.  He argues that the division of the brain into two hemispheres is essential to human existence, making possible incompatible versions of the world, with quite different priorities and values. 

In McGilchrist's words: 

" Most scientists long ago abandoned the attempt to understand why nature has so carefully segregated the hemispheres, or how to make coherent the large and expanding body of evidence about their differences. In fact to talk about the topic is to invite dismissal.  Yet no one who knows anything about the area would dispute for an instant that there are significant differences: it's just that no-one seems to know why.  And we now know that every type of function - including reason, emotion, language and imagery - is subserved not by one hemisphere alone, but by both. My book argues that the differences lie not, as has been supposed, in the 'what' - which skills each hemisphere possesses - but in the 'how', the way in which each uses them, and to what end.  But, like the brain itself, the relationship between the hemispheres is not symmetrical. The left hemisphere, though unaware of its dependence, could be thought of as an 'emissary' of the right hemisphere, valuable for taking on a role that the right hemisphere - the 'Master' - cannot itself afford to undertake.  However it turns out that the emissary has his own will, and secretly believes himself to be superior to the Master.  And he has the means to betray him.  What he doesn't realize is that in doing so he will also betray himself.

The book begins by looking at the structure and function of the brain and at the differences between the hemispheres, not only in attention and flexibility but in attitudes to the implicit, the unique, and the personal, as well as the body, time, depth, music, metaphor, empathy, morality, certainty and the self.  It suggests that the drive to language was not principally to do with communication or thought, but manipulation, the main aim of the left hemisphere, which manipulates the right hand.  It shows the hemispheres as no mere machines with functions but underwriting whole, self-consistent, versions of the world. Through an examination of Western philosophy, art and literature, it reveals the uneasy relationship of the hemispheres being played out in the history of ideas, from ancient times until the present.  It ends by suggesting that we may be about to witness the final triumph of the left hemisphere – at the expense of us all. "

Iain McGilChrist's complete interview with Iain McNay on Conscious TV is available via this link