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

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.

I don't write reviews on "cultural" things like books, music etc because we all have different tastes and interests so, this isn't a review. This is not a 'light' read at almost 600 pages but it is fascintating and there is an easy way to decide whether it might be for you before you buy a copy: Go to You Tube and do a search on Iain McGilchrist, there are many interviews/lectures to watch and whilst he is quietely spoken, he delivers content brilliantly, enjoy.

This is an eye-opening book of the first order. Its beauty is not just that it's a scientist writing about science stuff; no, but rather how the implication of the Divided Brain has affected Western civilisation so massively. I have bought 2 copies of this book - one to give to someone dear to me!

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.

Paints a beautiful picture of historical, cultural, artistic, philosophical, and religious developments throughout the western tradition, and provides considerably rigorous scientific evidence for the influence of the brains hemispheres being a fundamental contributor.

I’ve lived with this book from its publication. It feels like the missing link for my understanding of pretty much everything that matters in my life. As if I’ve received the key to unlocking the wisdom that sits in the ancient traditions east and west. It’s not just a new set of good ideas but provides a framework that now underwrites all my thinking. Finally It’s amusing to me that the bland AI summary totally misses the point of this wonderful book. QED.

O trabalho apresentado pelo doutor Mcgilchrist é simplesmente impressionante. Escrito em linguagem clara e direta, ele explica conceitos um tanto complexos com muita maestria. Infelizmente, esta importante obra não possui uma tradução para o Português do Brasil, considerando que este livro foi publicado em 2009!

I just finished this book. It took me about a month to go through it and critique it. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Please do not be mistaken. The book has flaws and I disagree with much of what it claims, but it is simply brilliant. I do a lot of reading in philosophy and this is a truly remarkable book. IMO, only two thinkers in the last 200 years are comparable to Iain, I think Iain is superior to both.The first is Hegel who wrote the early 1800's. Hegel wrote two major works (The Phenomenology of Spirit and the Science of Logic). While I detest Hegel, he is clearly the most influential thinker in our present culture. Marx is derived from Hegel as are the Post-Moderns and all forms of Critical Theory (Marcuse, Black Lives Matters, Critical Race Theory, et.al.). Iain, by the way, loves Hegel (it is one of the points I think he got wrong!). This book is divided into two Parts. Part 1 sets out the structure of Iain's thought, just as the Science of Logic sets out Hegel's. And, Iain's Part 1 is much easier to read than Hegel's Science of Logic. Iain's Part 2 applies his thought to history; he uses his thought to explain the development of human thought in the West from the ancient Greeks to Post-Modernism. Hegel did the same with his Phenomenology (of course, Hegel stopped his historical analysis much earlier). Once again Iain is much easier to read than Hegel. And, his work, IMO, is superior to Hegel both in content and in presentation. Not only is Iain much easier to read, he presents his thought in the proper order - structure first and then the application of the structure to history. Hegel did it backwards - he applied his structure to history first in the Phenomenology and then explained his structure in his Logic.The second thinker is Charles Darwin. Darwin build an intellectual structure which introduced a new concept into Science. This concept is called "natural selection", which asserts that species are changed as they adapt to different environments. This makes logical sense (after all, as Darwin pointed out, mankind is modifying species all the time - inventing new breeds of dogs and new types of flowers). At this level, Darwin's theory applies only to intra-species adaption, is falsifiable (which Karl Popper correctly IMO established as the hallmark for scientific theories), and was a huge scientific advance. Darwin then conflated his innovative and brilliant scientific theory of intra-species adaption into the "mythos" we know as "Darwinian Creationism". Darwinian Creationism is totally distinct from his intra-species natural selection theory. In traditional philosophical terms, Darwinian intra-species adaption is a "logos" and Dawinian Creationism is a "mythos" Darwinian Creationism claims to explain how all carbon based life on this planet came into existence. It is not falsifiable in the scientific sense (though many (erroneously IMO) claim it is). And it has been severely criticized. A excellent example is Thomas Nagel, who both is an atheist and holds PhD in Philosophy and is the head of the NYU philosophy department who asserts (once again correctly IMO) that Darwinian Creationism (the mythos), not Darwinian intra-species natural selection (the logos) simply cannot be true. But, whatever one thinks of Darwin, he is one of the few thinkers outside of Aristotle, who actually created two distinct and complementary systems of thought that have both been extraordinarily influential.Like Darwin, Iain has built a scientific theory (based on cognitive science) which explains how the operation of human cognition as a relationship between the two brain hemispheres. This is very much a "logos", just like Darwin created. Just like Darwin, Iain has taken his "logos" and created another far more extensive intellectual structure - one which explains and evaluates how this dual hemispheric structure has impacted human history starting with the ancient Greeks and ending with the post-moderns. This is not a "mythos". It is rather a comprehensive philosophical evaluation "model" - a way of evaluating certain historical periods and systems of thought. For example, Iain evaluates Descartes as compared to Heidegger. Comprehensive evaluation "models" are very rare in the history of human thought. For example, the last comprehensive philosophical evaluation "models" prior to Iain were proposed by David Hume in the early 1700's followed by Hegel in the early 1800's.Finally, Iain is the first true successor to the great Scottish thinker Thomas Reid (1710 -1796). Reid work was incredibly influential in Great Britain (from about 1750 to about 1820) and in America (from about 1760 to about 1900). In fact, Reid was extremely influential in the founding of America. Robert Curry has recently written two books on the subject. For a variety of reasons, Thomas Reid simply disappeared from the world for thought for nearly a century, but is now being "rediscovered". For example, Nicholas Wolterstorff (a philosophy professor at Yale) has written and excellent book on Reid, comparing his work to that of Ludwig Wittgenstein.Part of the reason Reid "disappeared" is that he had no worthy successor, until Iain. In fact, Reid was one of the first post-Newtonian cognitive scientists. His contemporary cognitive scientist, who had a drastically different take on the subject, is the better know Scotsman David Hume. Iain does cognitive science in the style of Reid and provides the first positive advancement on that discipline in line with the approach of Thomas Reid and based on the same metaphysical point of view. It was quite exciting for me to encounter it. I can hardly wait to read Iain's second work released in 2021.Finally, if you have read or been impressed by the New Atheists (Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, et. al.), this book is a must read. Just as Thomas Reid wrote to counter David Hume (and did so with incredible success in Great Britain and the United States), Iain writes to counter the New Atheists (particularly Dawkins). In fact, the relationship between Iain's work that of Richard Dawkins bears a striking resemblance to the relationship between Thomas Reid's work and that of David Hume. Just as Thomas Reid was a theistic counter (based on science) to Hume atheism, Iain is a theistic counter (based on science) to Dawkins' atheism.Although flawed, it is a remarkable accomplishment and I highly recommend it.

it took me a while to enter it, but i do not regret. I decided to buy it after watching many interviews online of the author.

A tour-de-force, peerless in its breadth and depth of multi-disciplinary analysis of the divided nature of the brain, and the increasing cerebral lateralization in the history of ideas. (The devastating consequences of disproportionate left hemisphere dominance). McGilchrist masterfully cross-fertilizes both domains, the sciences and humanities - the disciplines of psychiatry, cognitive and neuroscience, anthropology, with philosophy of mind, literature, music, language and art, - again with unsurpassed breadth, depth and sophistication, – truly staggering.In the latter part, he takes you on a tremendous journey through pivotal periods in Western civilization, explicating the ramifications of hemispheric balance with periods of flourishing (eg: early Greek, Romantic zenith and Renaissance) and the disastrous effects when the left hemisphere takes on more than its due share, leading to overextending of empires and collapse. Left hemispheric dominance results in confining our attention to and conception of the world to a reductive, bloodless, mechanistic, bureaucratized, compartmentalized, devitalized view of the world as an aggregate of separate 'things', as opposed to a living, flowing, ongoing constellation of intrinsically interconnected processes and events in constant dialog with one another).This work is truly magisterial, and shows compellingly how we've arrived to where we are today.The documentary The Divided Brain (on which he consulted), makes for a great primer.McGilchrist is easily one of the most important thinkers to draw breath and his work elucidates a message and awareness crucial for the survival and flourishing of our species.

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.