This “new soul” should have sung, not spoken!
-An Attempt at Self-Criticism
Why is the brain divided? In this groundbreaking book, based on a vast body of recent experimental research, Iain McGilchrist argues that the left and right hemispheres have differing insights, values and priorities. Each has a distinct “take” on the world - most strikingly, the right hemisphere sees itself as connected to the world, whereas the left hemisphere stands aloof from it. This affects our understanding not just of language and reason, music and time, but of all living things: our bodies, ourselves and the world in which we live.
We need both hemispheres; but, McGilchrist argues, the left hemisphere has become so far dominant that we’re in danger of forgetting everything that makes us human. Taking the reader on an extraordinary journey through Western history and culture, he traces how the left hemisphere has grabbed more than its fair share of power, resulting in a society where a rigid and bureaucratic obsession with structure, narrow self-interest and a mechanistic view of the world hold sway, at an enourmouse cost to human happiness and the world around us.