Jonathan Gaisman

Know your left from your right: the brain’s divided hemispheres

In his study of how the two hemispheres communicate, Iain McGilchrist shows us the world in an entirely new way

issue 12 February 2022

The dust jacket of The Matter With Things quotes a large statement from an Oxford professor: ‘This is one of the most important books ever published. And, yes, I do mean ever.’ Can any contemporary work withstand such praise? The ‘intelligent general reader’ (the book’s target audience) should, however, not be discouraged, for Iain McGilchrist has to be taken seriously: a Fellow of All Souls, eminent in neurology, psychiatry and literary criticism, a thinker and — it’s impossible to avoid the term —a sage.

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