Right Brain, Creativity, and Meaning in Life w/ Iain McGilchrist

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This week, Scott is joined by Psychiatrist and Author of "The Matter with Things", Iain McGilchrist, for a wide-ranging conversation spanning the main differences between left brain and right brain functions, the creative brain, intelligence, the source of truth, and the metaphysical realm of human existence.
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[@Regulus1999]

Fantastic! I only found Iain's work 6 months ago and love so much that he talks about and right away I thought, I wonder if Scott might ever get together with him for a conversation. And this did not dissappoint. I do hope this is only Part One!! Bravo.

[@johnmoyer99]

What a wonderfully nuanced discussion! Thank you SBK.

[@alohm]

I point to one of the first psychologists: (*I mean one of, I argue Psychology can go back to prehistory) Nietzsche. He explained this with a German word. schätzen. It means treasure. But the complete meaning is closer to what we value, what we treasure: is what we create, the life and les object d'art, is our meaning and thus the value is also our own value. Gestalt - we see in groups - like a cat is not a collection of parts to us, so the idea is seeing within the patterned thoughts... Beginners mind in Zen, Outsiders perspective to some, and the being open to sense and non-sense ala Jung...

[@NicoleShannon]

Beautiful! 💫 Thank you for sharing! I hope you do co-author an article together. I would love to read it.

[@margueritespringer3687]

Thank you

[@TriggerIreland]

Fab. The IMcG quote at the end re seeing the parts versus seeing the whole was striking in that the repetition of the seeing word didn't ring different enough to warrant the machinery of two distinct hemispheres. Is it that the left hemisphere sees (modelled representation) while the right hemisphere be's (present to what is)?

[@sabsmcdabs7139]

I'd love to see a co-authored article and ongoing discussions between you both 🎉

[@helenperala3459]

I have to say I have looked at IQ tests and don't get them at all yet I spend my days gardening and doing artwork and appreciating God so that makes it easier to think I might be a closet savant, ha ha!!!!! Or not. Love this talk, thanks so much.

[@Idysseus]

This looks great!

[@bobdillaber1195]

The left does as it pleases.

[@ChrisOgunlowo]

Phenomenal as always. Iain is the truth!

[@elizabethnissen8857]

I think we've lost a lot of the value of intuitive and creative application to science as a result of our social stigma surrounding "feminine" ways of thinking. We've associated logic with masculinity and lost the importance of other methods of problem solving. We value STEM with such evangelical fervour that we've forgotten the importance of other problem solving processes.

[@yazanasad7811]

Imagination - looking at what you know and then seeing it's strangeness (look at something you think you know until you see it's strangeness). Gets towards the truth through this dialogue. Fantasy leads to falsehood

[@siyaindagulag.]

21:30

[@dalibofurnell]

Yay! ❤

[@bobdillaber1195]

The left sees a triangle. The right, a pyramid. By nature, not by nurture.

[@poor_jafar]

16:47

[@PRAR1966]

🙂

[@Crypt0n1an]

People tend to think of intuition as this magical process that is outside the realm of our perception. I disagree with this notion and I believe that Iain made a good entry into parsing out what intuition actually is. You see, I believe that I am a very right brained individual not so much in the sense that my left brain is useless or inactive(i am actually extremely analytical) but rather that I probably use my right brain more than the average person(I am left handed after all). What I have come to realize is that intuition plays a pivotal part in any thought process and at least to me it does not feel nearly as magical as people make it out to be. I feel extremely intimate with my intuition and I can almost always track how I arrive at any one idea notion or sense of things. It can appear magical at first because it happens almost instantaneously, boom the solution just pops in your head, but in that instant almost like a snapshot I can begin to analyse how I arrived at that solution, the thought process behind it and how my brain "intuited" this above a myriad of other possibilities as the correct one. I think in large part this process is going on in the right hemisphere and perhaps due to me being slightly more right brained than the average person it doesn't feel as foreign or outside my perception. In a way I see it(the right hemisphere utilizing "intuition") as a super computer crunching the numbers and going through the various iterations until an adequate solution is reached. In that sense it can feel foreign because our normal linear thought process operates at a snail's pace compared to a super computer which is why some people are often at a loss in trying to explain their own intuition and often see it as something magical and coming out of nowhere given how quickly it can operate at times.

[@KRGruner]

Perfect example of motivated thinking. Smart man comes to the wrong conclusions because he is aiming at a goal other than truth. Sad.