Iain McGilchrist | |
---|---|
Born | 1953 (age 70–71) |
Nationality | British |
Occupation(s) | Psychiatrist, writer, lecturer |
Known for | The Master and His Emissary , The Matter with Things |
Iain McGilchrist FRSA (born 1953 [1] ) is a British psychiatrist, [2] literary scholar, philosopher and neuroscientist who wrote the 2009 book The Master and His Emissary , subtitled The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. [2] [3] [4]
He is a Quondam fellow of All Souls College, Oxford; a former associate fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford; an emeritus consultant at the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital in south London, a former research fellow in Neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore; and a former fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Stellenbosch. [5] McGilchrist is retired, though he continues to work as an independent scholar from his home on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. [6]
In 2021, McGilchrist published a new book of neuroscience, epistemology and metaphysics called The Matter with Things . [7] [6] [8] [9]
A polymath, [7] McGilchrist was awarded a scholarship in the 1960s to Winchester College in the UK, soon followed by a scholarship to New College, Oxford. There he read English, winning the English Chancellor's Prize and the Charles Oldham Shakespeare Prize in 1974, and subsequently was admitted to All Souls College, Oxford in 1975 as a Prize Fellow. [6] During this time, he taught English Literature while continuing research into philosophy and psychiatry, investigating specifically the mind-body relation. After this, he decided to pursue medicine and to train as a psychiatrist. [6]
In his capacity as a consultant psychiatrist at the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital, McGilchrist worked in several specialist areas including the Epilepsy Unit, the National Psychosis Referral Unit and the National Eating Disorder Unit, where he ultimately became the clinical director of their southern sector Acute Mental Health Services. [6]
Alongside his role as a physician, McGilchrist also contributed as a medical researcher. He produced original work on neuroimaging in schizophrenia and on the philosophical phenomenology of that disorder, publishing articles in the British Journal of Psychiatry , the American Journal of Psychiatry , Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience , and the British Medical Journal . [6]
He maintained academic contributions in the humanities as well, featuring work in the Times Literary Supplement , the London Review of Books , the Los Angeles Review of Books , Literary Review , the Wall Street Journal and the Sunday Times . [6] [10] [11]
Since the publication of The Master and His Emissary in 2009, McGilchrist has had a growing public profile. He has taken part in radio sessions, television programmes, numerous podcasts and interviews via YouTube with notable figures such as Sam Harris, Rowan Williams and John Cleese. [12] [13] [14] There has been a Canadian feature film made about his second book, The Master and his Emissary, titled the Divided Brain. [15]
McGilchrist's 2009 work, The Master and His Emissary has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide. [16] In very basic terms, it sought to consolidate research in brain lateralisation and to insist on the individual and cultural importance of the bi-hemisphere structure of the brain.
In place of the conventional view which concluded that there were no significant differences between the hemispheres because they were both involved in everything we do, McGilchrist argues that the manner in which they operate is substantially different. It is not that the hemispheres perform different functions, but that they perform these functions in a different way. Drawing on extensive neuroscientific research from the last one-hundred years, McGilchrist argues that each hemisphere offers a unique kind of attention to the world, an attention which brings a certain version of the world into being. According to McGilchrist, we have become entranced by the version of the world brought into being by the left hemisphere and forgotten the insights produced by the right. We need both hemispheres, he concludes, but we need the left hemisphere to operate in the service of the right, we need the "emissary" left hemisphere to serve the "master" right hemisphere. The periods where the proper hemispheric balance has gone awry, McGilchrist documents in the second half of the book where he offers a history of ideas seen through the lens of the hemisphere hypothesis.
McGilchrist's most recent work is the 2021 The Matter with Things , published by Perspectiva Press, which explores the metaphysical implications of the "hemisphere hypothesis". In this book he consolidates the latest neuroscientific evidence concerning (1) our means to truth (perception, attention, judgement, apprehension, among others); (2) the paths that we ordinarily take to truth (reason, science, logic) and other equally important paths such as intuition and imagination, and (3) the implications of this for the reality that is revealed. In the final sections, he attempts to make some headway in answering such fundamental questions as: What is space and time? What is matter and consciousness? What is value? Is a sense of the sacred baked into the world?
His main target in this book is scientific materialism: the view that the world is nothing but inert atoms, blankly colliding against one another in a predictable pattern. In place of this, McGilchrist seeks to reawaken a richer conception of reality, a conception revealed when our hemispheres return to their proper asymmetric relation.
In addition to lecturing worldwide, McGilchrist has also been commissioned by Oxford University Press to write a book of reflections on the humanities and sciences, to offer a critique of contemporary culture from the standpoint of neuropsychiatry, and to deliver an investigation into what is revealed by the paintings of those with psychotic illnesses. [6]
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link) E- ISSN 1086-3303. Print ISSN 1071-6076.Julian Jaynes was an American psychologist at Yale and Princeton for nearly 25 years, best known for his 1976 book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. His career was dedicated to the problem of consciousness: "the difference between what others see of us and our sense of our inner selves and the deep feelings that sustain it. ... Men have been conscious of the problem of consciousness almost since consciousness began." Jaynes's solution touches on many disciplines, including neuroscience, linguistics, psychology, archeology, history, religion and analysis of ancient texts.
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind is a 1976 book by the Princeton psychologist, psychohistorian and consciousness theorist Julian Jaynes (1920-1997). It explores the nature of consciousness – particularly "the ability to introspect" – and its evolution in ancient human history. Jaynes proposes that consciousness is a learned behavior rooted in language and culture rather than being innate. He distinguishes consciousness from sensory awareness and cognition. Jaynes introduces the concept of the "bicameral mind", a non-conscious mentality prevalent in early humans that relied on auditory hallucinations.
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 38,000 members who are involved in psychiatric practice, research, and academia representing a diverse population of patients in more than 100 countries. The association publishes various journals and pamphlets, as well as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The DSM codifies psychiatric conditions and is used mostly in the United States as a guide for diagnosing mental disorders.
Bicameral mentality is a hypothesis introduced by Julian Jaynes who argued human ancestors as late as the ancient Greeks did not consider emotions and desires as stemming from their own minds but as the consequences of actions of gods external to themselves. The theory posits that the human mind once operated in a state in which cognitive functions were divided between one part of the brain which appears to be "speaking", and a second part which listens and obeys—a bicameral mind, and that the breakdown of this division gave rise to consciousness in humans. The term was coined by Jaynes, who presented the idea in his 1976 book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind wherein he made the case that a bicameral mentality was the normal and ubiquitous state of the human mind as recently as 3,000 years ago, near the end of the Mediterranean bronze age.
A progress trap is the condition human societies experience when, in pursuing progress through human ingenuity, they inadvertently introduce problems that they do not have the resources or the political will to solve for fear of short-term losses in status, stability or quality of life. This prevents further progress and sometimes leads to societal collapse.
The lateralization of brain function is the tendency for some neural functions or cognitive processes to be specialized to one side of the brain or the other. The median longitudinal fissure separates the human brain into two distinct cerebral hemispheres, connected by the corpus callosum. Although the macrostructure of the two hemispheres appears to be almost identical, different composition of neuronal networks allows for specialized function that is different in each hemisphere.
Heather A. Berlin is an American neuroscientist and licensed clinical psychologist noted for her work in science communication and science outreach. Her research focuses on brain-behavior relationships affecting the prevention and treatment of impulsive and compulsive psychiatric disorders. She is also interested in the neural basis of consciousness, dynamic unconscious processes, and creativity. Berlin is host of the PBS Nova series Your Brain, the PBS series Science Goes to the Movies, the Discovery Channel series Superhuman Showdown, and StarTalk All-Stars with Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
Neuropsychoanalysis integrates both neuroscience and psychoanalysis, to create a balanced and equal study of the human mind. This overarching approach began as advances in neuroscience lead to breakthroughs which held pertinent information for the field of psychoanalysis. Despite advantages for these fields to interconnect, there is some concern that too much emphasis on neurobiological physiology of the brain will undermine the importance of dialogue and exploration that is foundational to the field of psychoanalysis. Critics will also point to the qualitative and subjective nature of the field of psychoanalysis, claiming it cannot be fully reconciled with the quantitative and objective nature of neuroscientific research. However, despite this critique, proponents of the field of neuropsychoanalysis remind critics that the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud himself, began his career as a neuroanatomist, further arguing that research in this category proves that the psychodynamic effects of the mind are inextricably linked to neural activity in the brain. Indeed, neuroscientific progress has created a shared study of many of the same cognitive phenomenon, and proponents for a distinct field under the heading of neuropsychoanalysis point to the ability for observation of both the subjective mind and empirical evidence in neurobiology to provide greater understanding and greater curative methods. Therefore, neurospsychoanalysis aims to bring a field, often viewed as belonging more to the humanities than the sciences, into the scientific realm and under the umbrella of neuroscience, distinct from psychoanalysis, and yet adding to the plethora of insight garnered from it.
John Allan Hobson was an American psychiatrist and dream researcher. He was known for his research on rapid eye movement sleep. He was Professor of Psychiatry, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School, and Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
The Edinburgh Phrenological Society was founded in 1820 by George Combe, an Edinburgh lawyer, with his physician brother Andrew Combe. The Edinburgh Society was the first and foremost phrenology grouping in Great Britain; more than forty phrenological societies followed in other parts of the British Isles. The Society's influence was greatest over its first two decades and declined in the 1840s; the final meeting was recorded in 1870.
Mark Solms is a South African psychoanalyst and neuropsychologist, who is known for his discovery of the brain mechanisms of dreaming and his use of psychoanalytic methods in contemporary neuroscience. He holds the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital and is the President of the South African Psychoanalytical Association. He is also Research Chair of the International Psychoanalytical Association.
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of deleterious mental conditions. These include various matters related to mood, behaviour, cognition, perceptions, and emotions.
Jeffrey Alan Lieberman is an American psychiatrist who specializes in schizophrenia and related psychoses and their associated neuroscience (biology) and pharmacological treatment. He was principal investigator for CATIE, the largest and longest independent study ever funded by the United States National Institute of Mental Health to examine existing pharmacotherapies for schizophrenia. He was president of the American Psychiatric Association from May 2013 to May 2014.
The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World is a 2009 book written by psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist that deals with the specialist hemispheric functioning of the brain. The differing world views of the right and left brain have, according to the author, shaped Western culture since the time of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, and the growing conflict between these views has implications for the way the modern world is changing. In part, McGilchrist's book, which is the product of twenty years of research, reviews the evidence of previous related research and theories, and based on this and cultural evidence, the author arrives at his own conclusions.
John Charles Cutting is a British psychiatrist specialising in schizophrenia research. He has written a number of books, and articles and reviews in professional journals, on the subjects of psychiatry, clinical psychology, schizophrenia and the functioning of the right cerebral hemisphere of the brain.
Norman Doidge,, is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and author of The Brain that Changes Itself and The Brain's Way of Healing.
Ivor Browne was an Irish psychiatrist and author who was Chief Psychiatrist of the Eastern Health Board, and professor emeritus of psychiatry at University College Dublin. He was best known for his theory of trauma as being at the root cause of many psychiatric diagnoses, as well as his early therapeutic use of psychedelics. He was also known for his opposition to traditional psychiatry, and his scepticism about psychiatric drugs. Browne died on 24 January 2024, at the age of 94.
The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human is a 2010 nonfiction book by V. S. Ramachandran that explores the uniqueness of human nature from a neurological viewpoint.
Psychiatry is, and has historically been, viewed as controversial by those under its care, as well as sociologists and psychiatrists themselves. There are a variety of reasons cited for this controversy, including the subjectivity of diagnosis, the use of diagnosis and treatment for social and political control including detaining citizens and treating them without consent, the side effects of treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy, antipsychotics and historical procedures like the lobotomy and other forms of psychosurgery or insulin shock therapy, and the history of racism within the profession in the United States.
The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World is a 2021 book of neuroscience, epistemology and metaphysics written by psychiatrist, thinker and former literary scholar Iain McGilchrist.