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And it has a desperate need for certainty.The left hemisphere appears to detest uncertainty it creates explanations and fills in gaps of information in order to build a cohesive story and extinguish doubt.

I have explained earlier why the left hemisphere is also unreliable in daily life: it has a tendency to jump to conclusions, to become entrenched, to be unwilling to see other points of view and, frankly, to make stuff up, if it needs to, in order to maintain its point of view. McGilchrist says that contrary to what you might think, the right brain is more connected to reality than the hyperlogical left brain: We have done this because the left brain's habit of regarding the world as mere matter that we can re-arrange at will to make useful has been very successful at making us rich and technologically advanced. A healthy brain - and a healthy culture - have the two working in tandem with each other.īut in modern culture, McGilchrist argues in both books, we have radically defaulted to a left-brain way of approaching reality - and it is leading us to disaster. Generally speaking, the left brain is where analysis and abstract reasoning occurs, and the right is where empathy and openness to experience is found. But it's a matter of fact that certain brain functions are located in one hemisphere, and other functions in the other. McGilchrist points out that of course both hemispheres work together in normal human brains, and that there's no neat separation.

Please don't dismiss all he says by claiming that 'left-brain/right-brain theory was debunked years ago.' You almost certainly don't understand what he's saying. Here is a link to a short, delightful animated explanation of McGilchrist's theory.

Brain picking open culture arts and letters daily