By Sheldon Greaves

I’ll get right to the point: The Master and His Emissary is probably the most important book I’ve encountered in at least twenty years. We’ve all heard about the characteristics of the “left-brain” versus the “right-brain”, and a flurry of neuroscientists have regaled us with various propositions on what makes us tick as a species. Frankly, I have found so many of the latter to be inadequate and unsatisfying because they take a reductionist approach that reduces the human mind to something less than what I find in daily experience. For awhile, I had pretty much written off the discipline as hopelessly trapped in its own bubble. One had the sense that their picture of the brain was missing something.

McGilchrist’s work has changed all that. This partly due to McGilchrist is a thinker of rare gifts and broad erudition. A world-renowned psychiatrist, McGilchrist came late to medicine following an equally distinguished career in the humanities, teaching English literature at Oxford, while studying philosophy and psychology meanwhile. This exceptionally deep background informs his work, which not only summarizes most of the best work in recent neuroscience, it lays out the implications for our current situation.

The human brain is divided into two hemispheres, each with certain specialties and functions, but both halves take part in nearly everything we do. The right hemisphere is more global in scope with a wider outlook. It can appreciate fuzzier concepts like irony, humor, and metaphor. The left hemisphere focuses on details. It tends to look at things as categories, moving parts, and automata. It tends towards acquisition and manipulation. McGilchrist shows how the right hemisphere will direct the left’s attention to some area of interest. The left studies whatever it is, and represents it in a kind of summary form back to the right brain to integrate into its larger picture. The right brain (“The Master”) is served by the left (“The Emissary”)

But, McGilchrist argues, there has been a shift in how the brain works. Modern thinking, particularly in the West, is increasingly dominated by left-hemisphere priorities and biases, but cannot grapple with the emergent complexity that is the defining characteristic of our world. This imbalance contributes to many historic and current problems. McGilchrist warns that this imbalance poses a serious threat to our collective future.

I can’t do the matter justice here, but I would encourage you to watch this video presentation in which McGilchrist summarizes his findings:

If you don’t have 32 minutes to spend, I also include this shorter TEDx presentation that weighs in at about 19 minutes.

The explanatory power of McGilchrist’s thesis for much of Western history and our current circumstance is astonishing. I should warn you that this is not an easy book to read. It is dense and demands careful attention. It is not at all casual, but it isn’t exactly dull, either (Okay, the discussion of the anatomy of the brain was a bit of a slog). The Master and His Emissary is essential reading for understanding how we got to our present position, and what chance we have of getting through whole.