An absolutely brilliant talk from Ian McGilchrist at the RSA, a brief introduction to his book The Master and the Emissary...
Touches on so many things that I have been feeling over the last few years and have strugged to put into words. Probably because they're an expression of my right brain!
It's these same feelings that have in part inspired me to write this blog and that I feel are at the root of much of my disillusionment with the way the modern world - and the corporate world in particular - works. So much creativity and positivity held back by lifeless bureaucracy, counter-productive 'processes' and a need for certainty.
The most interesting thing about McGilchrists thinking is his intellectual background and the balanced approach that this gives him:
"Nobody could be more passionate than myself about language, about reason, it's just that I'm even more passionate about the right hemisphere and the need to return what that knows to a broader context.
It's inspiring to hear a serious scientist starting to make the case for looking beyond rationality although, as he says, he still feels he is putting his neck on the line by doing so.
Heartening then that he isn't actually the first scientific thinker to make this point. McGilchrist ends his talk with this beautiful quote from that well known proponent of staring out of windows as a way to inspiration, Einstein:
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We've created a society that honours the servant, but has forgotten the gift."
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