And, since Left's characteristics are increasingly encouraged in our culture, this (he suggests) is something that really calls for our attention. In fact, in today's parlance, Left is decidedly autistic. It cannot, for instance, grasp metaphors, jokes or unspoken implications, all of which are Right's business. It usually has quite adequate understanding of what is said, but Left (on its own) misses many crucial aspects of linguistic meaning. And even over language, which is Left's speciality, Right is not helpless. Thus patients with right-brain strokes – but not with left-brain ones – tend to deny flatly that there is anything wrong with them. This means that Right usually knows what Left is doing, but Left may know nothing about concerns outside its own enclave and may even refuse to admit their existence. Moreover, it is Right that is responsible for surveying the whole scene and channelling incoming data, so it is more directly in touch with the world. He points out that this 'left-hemisphere chauvinism' cannot be correct because it is always Right's business to envisage what is going on as a whole, while Left provides precision on particular issues. He questions the accepted doctrine that the left hemisphere (Left henceforward) is necessarily dominant, the practical partner, while the right more or less sits around writing poetry. McGilchrist, who is both an experienced psychiatrist and a shrewd philo–sopher, looks at the relation between our two brain-hemispheres in a new light, not just as an interesting neurological problem but as a crucial shaping factor in our culture. Rather, it points out the complexity, the divided nature of thought itself and asks about its connection with the structure of the brain. It is not (as some reviewers seem to think) just one more glorification of feeling at the expense of thought.

The master and his emissary criticism