McGilchrist - The master and his emissary: the divided brain and the making of the Western world

THE MASTER AND HIS EMISSARY

Iain McGilchrist is a former Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director at the Bethlem Royal & Maudsley Hospital, London, and has researched in neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, Baltimore. He taught English at Oxford University, where he has been three times elected a Fellow of All Souls College. He works privately in London and otherwise lives on the Isle of Skye.

I AIN M C G ILCHRIST

THE
MASTER
AND HIS
EMISSARY

THE DIVIDED BRAIN AND THE
MAKING OF THE WESTERN WORLD

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON

Copyright 2009 Iain McGilchrist

First printed in paperback 2010

Figures 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.1 and 2.2 by Advanced Illustrations Ltd

M.C. Escher's Drawing Hands 2009 The M.C. Escher CompanyHolland. All rights reserved. www.mcescher.com

The author and publishers would like to thank Professor Michael Gazzaniga and Professor Nikolai Nikolaenko for permission to reuse copyright images.

The author and publishers have made every effort to trace the owners of copyright material reproduced in this book. In the event of any omission, please contact the publishers, who will make appropriate restitution in future editions.

The right of Iain McGilchrist to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McGilchrist, Iain.

The master and his emissary : the divided brain and the making of the Western world / Iain McGilchrist.

p. ; cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-300-14878-7 (alk. paper)

1. Cerebral dominance. I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Dominance, Cerebral. 2. Cerebrumphysiology. 3. Cultural Evolution. 4. Social Changehistory. 5. Western Worldhistory. WL 335 M4775m 2009]

QP385.5.M36 2009

612.8'25dc22

2009011977

Set in Minion Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd.
Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-300-16892-1 (pbk)

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
2013 2012 2011 2010

Illustrations within text

Embryonic origins of the cerebral hemispheres and other brain regions

The brain viewed from above, showing the corpus callosum

The brain viewed from the left side

Yakovlevian torque

Prefrontal cortex and limbic system

Diencephalon, basal ganglia and limbic system

Templates copied by patients with neglect ( 2008 by Nigel J. T. Thomas)

Emergence of the Gestalt

Split-brain subjects and sense of the whole (Gazzaniga & Le Doux, 1978)

Right hemisphere damage and loss of the sense of the whole (Hcaen & Ajuriaguerra, 1952)

Hemisphere differences and the whole (Nikolaenko, 2001)

Hemisphere differences and abstraction (Nikolaenko, 1997)

Hemisphere differences and visual depth (Nikolaenko, 1997)

Hemisphere differences: what we see v. what we know (Nikolaenko, 1997)

Cube drawing before and after commissurotomy (Gazzaniga & Le Doux, 1978)

Duck-rabbit (Popular Science Monthly, 1899)

Necker cube

Drawing Hands, by M. C. Escher

Pyramid of values according to Scheler

Creation of Man, by Michelangelo, fresco, 151112 (Vatican Museums and Galleries/Bridgeman Art Library)

Bishop blessing annual fair, from mediaeval pontifical vellum (Bibliothque Nationale, Paris, Lat 962 f.264/Bridgeman Art Library)

Ideal City, by Luciano Laurana, oil on panel, after 1470 (Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino/Bridgeman Art Library)

Sermon in the Hall of the Reformed Community of Stein near Nuremberg, attrib. Lorenz Strauch, c. 1620

Matire rflection pour les jongleurs couronnes, by Villeneuve, 1793

The Coliseum, by Antonio Lafrri, c. 1550 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The Coliseum, by Louis Ducros, late 18th century (private collection/ Agnew's, London/Bridgeman Art Library)

Turin Spring, by Giorgio de Chirico, oil on canvas, 1914 (private collection/Peter Willi/Bridgeman Art Library/ DACS 2009)

Woman in a Red Armchair, by Pablo Picasso, oil on canvas, 1932 (Muse Picasso, Paris/Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library Succession Picasso/DACS 2009)

Plate section

Rights were not granted to include the following illustrations in electronic media. Please refer to print publication.

Album p. XVII, by Barbara Honywood, mid-19th century (Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives: photograph by author)

Hallucinations V, by David Chick, mid-20th century (Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives: photograph by author)

Resurrection of the Dead, St Saviour in Khora, Istanbul, early 14th century

Christ and His Mother, St Saviour in Khora, Istanbul, early 14th century

Adoration of the Shepherds, by Domenico Ghirlandaio, fresco, 1485 (Sassetti Chapel, Santa Trinit, Florence/Bridgeman Art Library)

The Ambassadors, by Hans Holbein the Younger, oil on panel, 1533 (National Gallery, London/Bridgeman Art Library)

Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, by Claude Lorrain, oil on canvas, 1648 (National Gallery, London/Bridgeman Art Library)

Landscape with Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia, by Claude Lorrain, oil on canvas, 1682 ( Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford/Bridgeman Art Library)

Scene from The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, by Thomas Cole, oil on canvas, 1826 (Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York/Bridgeman Art Library)

The Conflagration, by Albert Bierstadt, oil on paper, late 19th century (Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts/Bridgeman Art Library)

Frontispiece from Milton: a Poem in 2 Books, by William Blake, 180411 ( The Trustees of the British Museum)

Large Reclining Nude, by Henri Matisse, 1935 (Baltimore Art Gallery/ Succession H Matisse/DACS 2009)

The Muse, by Pablo Picasso, oil on canvas, 1935 (Muse National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris/Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library/ Succession Picasso/DACS 2009)

La Lunette d'Approche, by Ren Magritte, 1963 (Menil Collection, Houston)

Charles II apologised that he had been an unconscionable time a-dying. This book has been an unconscionable time in coming to birth. The intellectual debts I have incurred during the twenty years I have been gestating it are many, and I can mention only a few. First and foremost, as will be obvious to many readers, I am hugely indebted to the ground-breaking work of John Cutting, especially to his Principles of Psychopathology, which was a revelation to me, but also to much else of his thought, research and conversation over the years, all of which has helped me more than I can say; and of Louis Sass, particularly his Madness & Modernism and TheParadoxes of Delusion. Their massively important work stands behind every page I have written; and, whether or not I have been able to make much of the view, they are the giants on whose shoulders I stand. Both have been generous in their encouragement, and Louis Sass has given liberally of his time in reading various versions of this book, in the process making many valuable suggestions, for which I am deeply grateful.