The Master and his Emissary

This is the title of a remarkable book by Ian McGilchrist that I am reading at present. Even before I finish it I can't recommend it too strongly to anyone who is interested in our behaviour and our culture. In essence, it explains the asymmetry in our brains and how this not only affects us individually, but also how it has guided the history of human development. The author is a neuropsychologist who also happens to have taught English at Oxford University. So his thoughts are based on extensive scientific research into how our brains function. But his achievement is to fill the gap that exists between recent understanding of how this amazing organ operates and ways of thinking both now and in our past about the different sides of our nature, sometimes referred to as the rational and the romantic.

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