The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

This is a fascinating and profoundly insightful exploration of the functions of the two hemispheres of our brain, and how they relate to one another; but it goes much further than that. From a sound background of brain research and neuro imaging covered in some considerable depth in Part One, the second Part goes on to make sense of these findings in a wider worldly context, suggesting how the balance of power may have switched between the two hemispheres over the centuries. We read how this may have influenced human behaviour and how this knowledge can be related to the history of Western culture and thought. The author is therefore able to provide convincing explanations for the present predicament the Western world finds itself in. I love the skilful use of metaphor throughout the book and the pace with which a new and fascinating story or idea unfolds with each page turned. There is so much that resonates with our human condition and the place we find ourselves in today, and it is difficult to do justice to the sheer scope of coverage in a brief review. It certainly makes sense to me in what I see around me, for example, that Christianity is losing its spirituality to dogma, and that individual responsibility is being dulled by increasing state interference, both symptomatic of a left hemispheric world. I can relate to the idea that our loss of cultural tradition and contact with the natural world reduces our ability to counter such left hemispheric dominance, but that body, soul and art combined may be able to resist such tendencies. The book poses important questions, such as: "Is the obvious inauthenticity of the mechanistic left hemispheric world now going to lead us to seek to change it?" Or "Can we learn from the cultural qualities and values of the East before they become Westernised beyond redemption?" Most importantly the author leaves us with a message of hope as he shows why there may still be time and opportunity for the empathic and intuitive right hemisphere to assert itself over the mechanistic and rational left hemisphere, with potentially huge significance for our future well being. Once I began reading I could not put this book down. With his vast experience and knowledge of medicine and psychiatry, philosophy and English literature, the author is more than well qualified to write a book of this enormous scope and depth. Erudite it certainly is, and the book will surely be essential reading for anyone involved in any study of the human brain and human behaviour. But the author's style is so easy and persuasive that any intelligent reader who is concerned for the state of our world should read and truly digest this quite unique and valuable book.

This is not an easy read, but worth persevering. The first part is quite technical, but the information does provide the evidence for his hypothesis. It got more interesting (to me) in Part Two, where the changes in the culture were linked to changes in the level of consciousness at that time.

One of the most interesting and informative books this century. I would highly recommend listening to the audible version a few times before reading the book. The book covers many different subjects from many different angles; drawing on fields of knowledge which are often jealously policed by academic specialists. It’s a literary, scientific, and philosophical tour de force which gives many plausible explanations for the disastrous mess in which we find ourselves. McGilchrist mentions that the topics of each chapter are so vast that lifetimes of study and research would be needed to cover them; and this, for me, is the root of the problem. Thinking and studying in the way we do – in a predominantly left hemispheric manner in a predominantly left hemispherically organized culture – we can never hope to learn much in a lifetime or evolve; we can however, in our little detached spheres of ‘learning’ do a huge amount of damage to ourselves and our planet. In brief, there has to be another way of learning and living. But first, as McGilchrist points out, we should perhaps observe that overdriving the left hemisphere for centuries has created a hypertrophy of focus; we are hypnotised, in a deep trance state; as mystics rightly claim, we are asleep. The difficulty is that a sleeping ‘civilization’ has to realize that it is asleep. This book is a constructive way of beginning to understand what’s wrong and to begin to twitch a little in our own sleep. It’s interesting that the left hemisphere as described by McGilchrist, has many of the functions and attributes of the self which Idries Shah describes as the ‘Commanding Self’ in his book ‘The Sufis’ (greed, laziness, selfishness, envy etc). This ‘Commanding Self’ is a secondary self, common to all of us, which highjacks the real self. If we don’t observe it and control it, it will control us; it will become what we assume ourselves to be. It’s interesting because, as with McGilchrist’s emissary, the Commanding Self is a usurper. When this self is on the throne (or McGilchrist’s ‘Emissary’) we are upside down in relation to reality. As another Sufi, Hakim Sanai mentioned: ‘If you yourself are upside down in relation to reality, then your wisdom and faith are bound to be topsy turvy.’ In the following verse Sanai writes, ‘Stop weaving a net about yourself. Burst like a lion from the cage.’ Hopefully, understanding McGilchrist’s ‘Emissary’ brings us a little closer to understanding the cage maker; and the designs of our cages.

Got the book after Jordan Peterson's interview with the author who seemed a very erudite and interesting man. A fascinating subject and the line from Nietzsche whom works ive read (in German) so was eagerly awaiting the book's arrival. I was immediately captivated by the science of the two brain hemispheres. Yet, and it didnt take long, i frequently had to put the book down because of the convoluted way in which the highways led to byways coupled to asides and interesting castles on the hill on the left and the tasty scones in the cafeteria at that little place near the river. To give context, i am actually used to spun out philosophical ideas and small print. Like others said, where was the editor? Why is it necessary to display one's intelligence in such a way that the sentences become heavy and clogged up? Come to think of it, maybe he edited, reconstructed, added them to the point of breakdown. It couldve used some of the right hemisphere flow that he champions. There's the irony right there! Ok, i better stop putting him down. There was a lot of really good stuff in the book, some of it really inspiring and rich, thought provoking. He just fell short with the endless juxtaposition in everything, like a lawyer defending his client. No mention of the catholic inquisition and its insistence on purity which im afraid is not just a protestant thing but a general hallmark of organised religion. Like him i wished my countryman Erasmus had won the day in the clash of the Titans, but a clash it became. I think he is right in highlighting the pros of the renaissance and the early enlightenment and what went wrong but it is not an absolute line as the proposed dichotomy suggests. To gloss over Nietzsches condemnation of everything religious and especially Christian dogma which he typecast as 'sklaven moral' and pull him out of the hat when he needs him to perform a trick in front of the jury in defense of his case is rather odd. Ok, how can i finish this? Great book, read it then examine the caveats. I for one am happy i did buy it.

There is a reason this book is so famous and referenced in so many conversations. Pick any page, and you're almost certain to discover an insight that enriches your life. Provides a new and very useful lens on the world, linking history, neuroscience, philosophy and culture.

An important contribution to critiques of our Western civilisation over-emphasis of rational thought and action, a not altogether fortunate outcome of the Enlightenment, and a consequent down-playing of other forms of cognition. - As Mary Midgley points out in her review 'This is a very remarkable book. It is not (as some reviewers seem to think) just one more glorification of feeling at the expense of thought. Rather, it points out the complexity, the divided nature of thought itself and asks about its connection with the structure of the brain.' - ‘We need the ability’, writes McGilchrist, ‘to make fine discriminations, and to use reason appropriately. But these contributions need to be made in the service of something else, that only the right [brain] hemisphere can bring. Alone they are destructive. And right now they may be bringing us close to forfeiting the civilisation they helped to create.’ (p95) - In the section PRIMACY OF AFFECT, p185, McGilchrist claims ‘But emotion is very important, and it too is closer to the core of our being than cognition. As Nietzsche wrote ‘thoughts are the shadows of our feelings – always darker, emptier, simpler’. ‘ - Whether or not we buy into the right-brain/left-brain explanation, or take it as just a metaphor, the over-emphasis of the rational at the expense of the intuitive and other ways to think and act seems important enough to motivate us to grasp McGilchrist’s message in The Master and his Emissary. The 2019 edition includes a preface responding to critics of the earlier version. That apart I’ve not managed to spot differences. - As to the importance of McGilchrist’s message, I found a resonance with Noah Kennedy’s The Industrialization of Intelligence, in which Kennedy argues that rational thought is incorporated in machinery so as to replace physical, and increasingly intellectual, human effort in manufacturing to a dangerous extent.

Illuminating and beautifully accessible.

The book has some interesting points that I agree with ; I take off my hat. Most points he makes are understandable, but he then goes off on a tangent and goes all around the houses, quoting whomever or whatever unnecessarily, thus making the book a good alternative to sleeping pills. Then, believe it or not, most of his sentences are really long, and some a paragraph in length, and some of the words he uses are not even in the lexicon . It's like he's portraying 'look at me how clever I am'. I won't be reading any other of Ian McGilchrists' books. It seems to be a left-hemisphere written book with the right-hemisphere understandably falling asleep.

Uma maestria para os estudiosos de neuropsicologia

No pude esperar a la traducción. Sorprende lo entretenido y fácil de su lectura. Adentrarse en la estructura del cerebro es adentrase en uno mismo y en la historia. Esto, más que una metáfora creíble, es una sensiblemente cambia-vidas. Fascinante y revelador contenido.

Buona lettura

右脳左脳の今までの神話を書き換え、科学的データで詳しく説明し、西洋文明の成り立ちを導く画期的な本。目から鱗が落ちる。左脳の暴走に牛耳られている現代文明が崖っぷちに立たされている今だからこそ薦めたい本である。

This isn't the easiest of books to read, or to understand. However it's fascinating and definitely thought provoking. Keep in mind you won't read it in one sitting.