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Chapter 6 Commentary

Page history last edited by Jenny Mackness 3 years, 10 months ago

Although this is one of the shorter chapters in Part 1 of the Master and his Emissary, it nevertheless contains some difficult ideas to grasp, particularly the section on the role of the hemispheres in consciousness, which I had to read many times to get a sense of the points McGilchrist is trying to make.

In reading these chapters I have discovered that McGilchrist sometimes starts a new chapter with a very brief summary or few sentences outlining the key ideas of the preceding chapter. This has made me reflect again on whether the amount of detail that McGilchrist includes in his chapters sometimes obscures the key points he is trying to make. I wonder whether he spent any time considering this, and whether he thought about how best to present the key ideas without becoming too explicit and reductive, so falling into the left hemisphere’s trap.

A question that arose for me is whether the title of ‘The Triumph of the Left Hemisphere’ for this chapter is overstated. Even on reflection and ten years after publication, I expect McGilchrist would say it is not. He has said that he stands by what he has written, and has not changed his mind. If it is not overstated, then my understanding is that the left hemisphere triumphs over the right hemisphere because:

the left hemisphere is competitive and only cooperates out of self-interest
the left hemisphere is better able to suppress the right hemisphere than the right is able to suppress the left
the will of the left hemisphere inhibits the will of the right hemisphere
the left hemisphere only looks out for its own territory
the left hemisphere is in control at the conscious level
means of argument – language, logic, linearity, are all under left-hemisphere control
the left hemisphere’s point of view dominates because it is most accessible: closest to the self-aware, self-inspecting intellect
the left hemisphere builds positive feedback self-enclosed systems
the left hemisphere denies evidence and is blind to experience

I suspect that I have missed some important messages in this chapter. It is intense reading and I’m still not sure that I have understood it correctly.

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