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

The most fascinating book I've read this year. The scope and depth of the book is pretty incredible - McGilchrist sets out to help the reader understand the apparent respective roles of the two hemispheres of the brain - the "Master," or right hemisphere, and the "Emissary," or left hemisphere. The author writes in detail about how each hemisphere seems to have a part in shaping our understanding of the world. Much of this understanding is the result of the study of patients who have had their corpora callosa severed, so that the left and right hemispheres of the brain can no longer directly communicate.

The second half of the book explores how we, as beholders, have shaped the world as a result of this bicamerality.

I was strongly more interested in the first half of the text, but scope of the historical summary was impressive.

I am sympathetic to McGilchrist's call for us to pay more attention to the holistic, metaphor-generating right hemisphere.