No One Has Actually Read McGilchrist

I can’t really think of another explanation.

Either all of you are lying about having read McGilchrist, or you don’t read very well, or… or I don’t know, maybe I’m going insane. Maybe I’m the crazy one. You know what, maybe I’m the crazy one, yeah.

But let’s assume I’m not for a minute, and I’ll just keep writing.

There are a couple things that trigger me here, that make me fling up my hands and ugh to the sky. I think I’ll only cover two of them today, the most common two things that people say when it comes to left and right hemisphere topics that make me want to wreak all manner of violence upon all manner of matter.

Disclaimer before I start: I have to say this every time I discuss this topic — I don’t actually care if the things described by McGilchrist map to the neurons on one side or the other of the corpus calossum. It seems like they do, to some degree, but that doesn’t matter to me — the neurobiology is just one potent lens on a dynamic that is clearly real. “Left Hemisphere” and “Right Hemisphere” aren’t my favorite names for the two poles of this dynamic, but they are the ones that the culture seems to have agreed on for discussing this, so I’ll use them. With that said, let’s get to it.

1. The 50/50 thing is dumb, please stop

I cannot count how many versions of this clever reply I have seen floating around out there:

If going all the way towards the left hemisphere is a world-breaking mistake, then it feels irresponsible to be shilling a turn all the way towards the right hemisphere. It’s just the same mistake on the other side of the pendulum — we need to find a balance, not a reversal. I am very wise.

Which, if you’ve read even the title of McGilchrist’s biggest book, it should be obvious to you that this is a dumb thing to say. And yet.

It’s kind of like saying