I enjoyed Willis's review1 of Iain McGilchrist's fascinating book; he agrees with its thesis, which means that he is less hesitant than I am about the degree to which contemporary neurology explains the history of Western civilisation, and since this is the fulcrum point for the case McGilchrist set out to make, it is unsurprising that it should prompt debate in this way. It is true that McGilchrist speaks of promoting the idea that there should be balance between right and left hemispherical (what shall we call them?) Weltanschauung, but the tenour of his book is that the right offers more and better than the left, and that the left has been too much in control, and that we need more of the more intuitive, religious, mystical, emotional, cloudy, perfumed right hemisphere. I, casting a shuddering look over history, think we do not.
- © British Journal of General Practice, 2010.