1
00:00:00,043 --> 00:00:02,518
[WHOOSH]

2
00:00:05,488 --> 00:00:07,963
[MUSIC PLAYING]

3
00:00:12,418 --> 00:00:14,893
[THEME MUSIC]

4
00:00:31,733 --> 00:00:35,523
>> How do we
experience the world?

5
00:00:35,523 --> 00:00:40,453
How do we make sense of it,
measure it, construct it,

6
00:00:40,453 --> 00:00:42,643
and understand our
position in it?

7
00:00:47,103 --> 00:00:50,773
A controversial scientist,
Iain McGilchrist,

8
00:00:50,773 --> 00:00:53,023
has developed a radical
theory about how

9
00:00:53,023 --> 00:00:57,563
our brain interprets the world.

10
00:00:57,563 --> 00:01:00,563
>> Iain McGilchrist, he's a
psychiatrist and author of "The

11
00:01:00,563 --> 00:01:02,183
Master and His Emissary--

12
00:01:02,183 --> 00:01:05,903
The Divided Brain and the
Making of the Western World,"

13
00:01:05,903 --> 00:01:08,753
about the various implications
of the differences

14
00:01:08,753 --> 00:01:11,763
between the two
hemispheres in the brain.

15
00:01:11,763 --> 00:01:12,563
Let's start there.

16
00:01:12,563 --> 00:01:13,363
Like what?

17
00:01:13,363 --> 00:01:14,843
>> Two hemispheres have styles--

18
00:01:14,843 --> 00:01:16,403
takes, if you
like-- on the world.

19
00:01:16,403 --> 00:01:17,733
They see things differently.

20
00:01:17,733 --> 00:01:19,108
They prioritize
different things.

21
00:01:19,108 --> 00:01:21,353
There are different values.

22
00:01:21,353 --> 00:01:25,733
The left hemisphere's goal is to
enable us to manipulate things.

23
00:01:25,733 --> 00:01:27,503
Whereas, the goal of
the right hemisphere

24
00:01:27,503 --> 00:01:31,058
is to relate to things and
understand them as a whole.

25
00:01:31,058 --> 00:01:33,683
Two ways of thinking
that are both needed,

26
00:01:33,683 --> 00:01:38,033
but are fundamentally at
the same time incompatible.

27
00:01:38,033 --> 00:01:42,893
>> McGilchrist claims that the
left hemisphere of the brain is

28
00:01:42,893 --> 00:01:46,463
gradually colonizing our
experience of the world with

29
00:01:46,463 --> 00:01:49,563
potentially disastrous
implications.

30
00:01:49,563 --> 00:01:51,803
>> The way of thinking
which is reductive,

31
00:01:51,803 --> 00:01:54,683
mechanistic has taken us over.

32
00:01:54,683 --> 00:01:59,003
We behave like people who
had right hemisphere damage.

33
00:01:59,003 --> 00:02:04,593
>> Do we pay a price for being
too left hemisphere-centered?

34
00:02:04,593 --> 00:02:06,233
>> We may pay the
ultimate price,

35
00:02:06,233 --> 00:02:10,462
who treats the world as a
simple resource to be exploited.

36
00:02:10,462 --> 00:02:12,323
It's made us
enormously powerful.

37
00:02:12,323 --> 00:02:15,443
It's enabled us
to become wealthy.

38
00:02:15,443 --> 00:02:19,343
But it's also meant
that we've lost means

39
00:02:19,343 --> 00:02:21,053
to understand the world.

40
00:02:21,053 --> 00:02:24,473
>> His revolutionary theory has
attracted prominent supporters

41
00:02:24,473 --> 00:02:28,223
worldwide, comparing
him to Freud and Darwin.

42
00:02:28,223 --> 00:02:31,703
>> I think "The Master and
His Emissary" was possibly,

43
00:02:31,703 --> 00:02:33,438
one of the most
important books I read.

44
00:02:33,438 --> 00:02:35,813
>> The idea that there is a
distinction between those two

45
00:02:35,813 --> 00:02:40,223
perspectives seems,
to me, correct.

46
00:02:40,223 --> 00:02:42,683
And I see it all the
time in my own field

47
00:02:42,683 --> 00:02:44,063
of clinical psychology.

48
00:02:44,063 --> 00:02:46,403
>> I kind of had one
revelation after another.

49
00:02:46,403 --> 00:02:49,463
I mean, it just explains an
incredible number of things

50
00:02:49,463 --> 00:02:52,523
that I've always been
slightly positive about.

51
00:02:52,523 --> 00:02:55,623
>> But scientists
think he's a heretic.

52
00:02:55,623 --> 00:02:57,273
>> It's a fantastic book.

53
00:02:57,273 --> 00:02:59,993
It's a fantastic book
that I don't believe in.

54
00:02:59,993 --> 00:03:02,433
>> The brain is as
mechanical as clockwork.

55
00:03:02,433 --> 00:03:04,803
A famous English
physicist said that.

56
00:03:04,803 --> 00:03:07,403
Let's just get over that.

57
00:03:07,403 --> 00:03:09,593
>> Now McGilchrist
is on the road.

58
00:03:09,593 --> 00:03:12,623
Invited to speak about his
view of the brain and society.

59
00:03:15,773 --> 00:03:18,083
Could the problems
of the modern world

60
00:03:18,083 --> 00:03:21,393
be influenced by an
imbalance in the human brain?

61
00:03:24,183 --> 00:03:28,023
And what does that
imply about our future?

62
00:03:28,023 --> 00:03:30,453
For Iain McGilchrist,
the problem

63
00:03:30,453 --> 00:03:36,133
is not only bad politics or
a warped economic system.

64
00:03:36,133 --> 00:03:39,843
The problem is inside
our modern brain.

65
00:03:58,691 --> 00:04:01,171
[WAVES]

66
00:04:07,153 --> 00:04:09,343
>> The landscape speaks
very strongly to people.

67
00:04:12,143 --> 00:04:16,403
Some people find it a
little bit overwhelming.

68
00:04:16,403 --> 00:04:18,953
I suspect it's what
the people call

69
00:04:18,953 --> 00:04:21,533
one of their Celtic
thin places, where

70
00:04:21,533 --> 00:04:24,923
the world beyond the
immediate seems very apparent.

71
00:04:28,483 --> 00:04:32,973
There is something very
special about the whole place.

72
00:04:32,973 --> 00:04:37,563
There's a strong energy there
from the wildness of nature.

73
00:04:37,563 --> 00:04:38,793
You feel it.

74
00:04:38,793 --> 00:04:42,543
>> It was here that McGilchrist
developed his groundbreaking

75
00:04:42,543 --> 00:04:43,563
theory.

76
00:04:43,563 --> 00:04:47,643
>> My dad was a doctor and tried
to avoid becoming a doctor.

77
00:04:47,643 --> 00:04:50,223
His first degree
was in economics.

78
00:04:50,223 --> 00:04:52,263
And I rather repeated
the pattern in this.

79
00:04:52,263 --> 00:04:54,153
I didn't even begin to
be trained in medicine

80
00:04:54,153 --> 00:04:54,978
until was 28.

81
00:04:54,978 --> 00:04:57,165
[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

82
00:04:59,733 --> 00:05:03,693
>> McGilchrist took an indirect
path to reach medicine.

83
00:05:03,693 --> 00:05:06,243
As a young man, he
taught literature

84
00:05:06,243 --> 00:05:09,793
at Oxford University.

85
00:05:09,793 --> 00:05:12,603
>> After I got my degree, I
got a fellowship at All Souls

86
00:05:12,603 --> 00:05:15,513
College, which enabled me
to do, really, more or less,

87
00:05:15,513 --> 00:05:17,883
anything I liked
intellectually for seven years.

88
00:05:27,983 --> 00:05:31,163
And into that time, I
then ended up really

89
00:05:31,163 --> 00:05:34,973
thinking more about
the mind-body problem.

90
00:05:34,973 --> 00:05:38,423
When we read a poem or we
listen to a piece of music,

91
00:05:38,423 --> 00:05:41,063
it can bring tears to your eyes.

92
00:05:41,063 --> 00:05:42,563
It can quicken your pulse.

93
00:05:42,563 --> 00:05:44,453
It can raise your
blood pressure.

94
00:05:44,453 --> 00:05:50,223
In other words, it has enormous
effects on you physiologically.

95
00:05:50,223 --> 00:05:52,503
I felt that we were
doing something

96
00:05:52,503 --> 00:05:55,713
destructive to literature.

97
00:05:55,713 --> 00:05:57,213
People in the past
had taken trouble

98
00:05:57,213 --> 00:06:01,503
to create something that was
unique, embodied, and implicit.

99
00:06:01,503 --> 00:06:03,273
And we came along
and made it general

100
00:06:03,273 --> 00:06:04,773
and abstract and explicit.

101
00:06:04,773 --> 00:06:08,983
And making a poem explicit is
a bit like explaining a joke.

102
00:06:08,983 --> 00:06:12,113
It just makes it fall flat.

103
00:06:12,113 --> 00:06:15,093
A work of art is
an embodied being

104
00:06:15,093 --> 00:06:17,503
that has an encounter with
you as an embodied being.

105
00:06:17,503 --> 00:06:19,953
It's not a bunch of
thought that just has

106
00:06:19,953 --> 00:06:22,753
an encounter with your brain.

107
00:06:22,753 --> 00:06:26,643
The base of the problem was
the mind-body relationship.

108
00:06:26,643 --> 00:06:28,393
That we were looking
at literature in much

109
00:06:28,393 --> 00:06:30,453
too disembodied a way.

110
00:06:30,453 --> 00:06:32,173
I thought no.

111
00:06:32,173 --> 00:06:36,633
I need somehow to
tackle this problem.

112
00:06:36,633 --> 00:06:39,289
That was what impelled
me to do medicine.

113
00:06:44,493 --> 00:06:48,423
>> McGilchrist spent the next
14 years training in neurology

114
00:06:48,423 --> 00:06:50,073
and psychiatry.

115
00:06:50,073 --> 00:06:53,073
It was a journey that took
him to the renowned Maudsley

116
00:06:53,073 --> 00:06:54,653
Hospital in London.

117
00:07:00,333 --> 00:07:04,253
>> So this was built just around
the time of the First World

118
00:07:04,253 --> 00:07:06,743
War.

119
00:07:06,743 --> 00:07:11,433
This was one of the many places
to which I owe a huge debt.

120
00:07:11,433 --> 00:07:14,853
Because I was seeing an
extremely broad cross-section

121
00:07:14,853 --> 00:07:16,173
of patients.

122
00:07:16,173 --> 00:07:17,973
Conditions such
as schizophrenia,

123
00:07:17,973 --> 00:07:20,418
severe personality
disorders, and head injuries.

124
00:07:24,593 --> 00:07:29,473
This is an amazing
painting by William Kurelek

125
00:07:29,473 --> 00:07:30,847
called "The Maze."

126
00:07:40,148 --> 00:07:42,923
What's interesting is
the very human anguish

127
00:07:42,923 --> 00:07:45,878
of this person with his illness.

128
00:07:51,513 --> 00:07:56,223
What one is seeing is a change
in the whole way in which one

129
00:07:56,223 --> 00:08:00,498
experiences the world due to
something out of the ordinary

130
00:08:00,498 --> 00:08:02,168
in brain functioning.

131
00:08:05,353 --> 00:08:08,443
Here at the Maudsley
Hospital, I had access

132
00:08:08,443 --> 00:08:13,675
to patients for whom the world
has become utterly changed.

133
00:08:13,675 --> 00:08:15,133
Particularly
interesting to me were

134
00:08:15,133 --> 00:08:17,983
people with either
tumors or strokes.

135
00:08:17,983 --> 00:08:21,973
Because there, you can
localize where the damage is.

136
00:08:21,973 --> 00:08:23,593
You can see it in a scan.

137
00:08:23,593 --> 00:08:27,753
And you can then see what
happens to that patient.

138
00:08:27,753 --> 00:08:31,263
Good science starts from a
really intriguing question.

139
00:08:31,263 --> 00:08:33,962
Why is the brain divided?

140
00:08:33,962 --> 00:08:38,753
You know, I never heard that
asked in any of my training.

141
00:08:38,753 --> 00:08:41,913
It's really what I've been
thinking about all my life.

142
00:08:41,913 --> 00:08:43,923
About these two
different ways in which

143
00:08:43,923 --> 00:08:46,713
we seem to inhabit the world.

144
00:08:46,713 --> 00:08:50,493
And that was the beginning of a
20-year long process in which I

145
00:08:50,493 --> 00:08:53,163
tried to apply myself
to the question of what

146
00:08:53,163 --> 00:08:55,593
the differences between these
two hemispheres really were.

147
00:09:04,223 --> 00:09:06,443
>> Everything we
human beings ever do,

148
00:09:06,443 --> 00:09:10,193
no matter how ordinary it
seems, has a complex beginning

149
00:09:10,193 --> 00:09:12,953
in our brains.

150
00:09:12,953 --> 00:09:14,813
Finding out how the
brain does this work

151
00:09:14,813 --> 00:09:17,963
is a study that has fascinated
scientists for centuries.

152
00:09:17,963 --> 00:09:20,723
>> The brain is, of course, an
enormously complex structure.

153
00:09:20,723 --> 00:09:22,893
In fact, it's kind of
redundantly complex.

154
00:09:22,893 --> 00:09:24,983
We have two cerebral
hemispheres.

155
00:09:24,983 --> 00:09:26,603
But it becomes a
fascinating question

156
00:09:26,603 --> 00:09:29,153
to know whether the two
cerebral hemispheres can

157
00:09:29,153 --> 00:09:30,293
operate separately.

158
00:09:30,293 --> 00:09:34,083
>> In the '60s and '70s
in California at Caltech,

159
00:09:34,083 --> 00:09:38,693
there was some incredibly
important and fascinating work.

160
00:09:38,693 --> 00:09:41,963
And what they were
trying to do was

161
00:09:41,963 --> 00:09:44,963
to improve the quality
of life for people

162
00:09:44,963 --> 00:09:46,673
with intractable epilepsy.

163
00:09:46,673 --> 00:09:49,073
Now these people might
have almost continuous

164
00:09:49,073 --> 00:09:50,843
epileptic seizures.

165
00:09:50,843 --> 00:09:53,573
Which meant that
they couldn't really

166
00:09:53,573 --> 00:09:57,173
carry on any kind
of normal life.

167
00:09:57,173 --> 00:10:02,333
>> The original idea was based
on the notion that if you

168
00:10:02,333 --> 00:10:06,563
isolated a seizure to one
half the brain so it could not

169
00:10:06,563 --> 00:10:11,033
spread to the other half
brain, when a seizure occurred,

170
00:10:11,033 --> 00:10:13,326
you would prevent a
generalized convulsion.

171
00:10:13,326 --> 00:10:14,993
It wouldn't spread
throughout the brain.

172
00:10:14,993 --> 00:10:17,118
The patient wouldn't lose
generalized consciousness

173
00:10:17,118 --> 00:10:19,413
and you would have helped.

174
00:10:19,413 --> 00:10:24,003
>> Today Michael Gazzaniga is
a world-renowned neuroscientist

175
00:10:24,003 --> 00:10:25,503
and vineyard owner.

176
00:10:25,503 --> 00:10:29,193
In the 1960s, he was a
grad student participating

177
00:10:29,193 --> 00:10:31,203
in radical brain experiments.

178
00:10:31,203 --> 00:10:33,813
>> By sectioning this structure,
as can be seen in this half

179
00:10:33,813 --> 00:10:36,963
brain section, called the corpus
callosum and it has over 2

180
00:10:36,963 --> 00:10:38,313
million nerve fibers.

181
00:10:38,313 --> 00:10:42,153
And they richly interconnect
the two halves of the brain.

182
00:10:42,153 --> 00:10:45,663
What they did was, with
some trepidation initially,

183
00:10:45,663 --> 00:10:50,193
to divide this corpus
callosum, the main pathway

184
00:10:50,193 --> 00:10:53,993
by which the two
hemispheres communicate.

185
00:10:53,993 --> 00:10:57,583
And what they found after the
operation was that the seizures

186
00:10:57,583 --> 00:10:59,413
largely stopped.

187
00:10:59,413 --> 00:11:02,413
The other thing was it
was possible by setting

188
00:11:02,413 --> 00:11:04,963
it up carefully
controlled experiments

189
00:11:04,963 --> 00:11:09,133
to find out what the
reactions of the left

190
00:11:09,133 --> 00:11:12,713
and the right hemisphere
were independently.

191
00:11:12,713 --> 00:11:15,923
>> Each side of the brain
controls the opposite side

192
00:11:15,923 --> 00:11:17,133
of the body.

193
00:11:17,133 --> 00:11:19,703
So the left hemisphere
controls the right side

194
00:11:19,703 --> 00:11:22,973
of the body and the right
hemisphere communicates

195
00:11:22,973 --> 00:11:23,783
with the left.

196
00:11:26,933 --> 00:11:29,033
>> The patient
looks at a screen.

197
00:11:29,033 --> 00:11:31,493
Just imagine fixating on a dot.

198
00:11:31,493 --> 00:11:34,733
And over here, we flash
a picture of an apple.

199
00:11:34,733 --> 00:11:36,433
So if it's in the
right visual field.

200
00:11:36,433 --> 00:11:38,183
That goes to your left brain.

201
00:11:38,183 --> 00:11:40,003
Left brain's got
language and speech.

202
00:11:40,003 --> 00:11:42,293
Patient said that's an apple.

203
00:11:42,293 --> 00:11:45,243
This time, you put the apple
over in the left visual field.

204
00:11:45,243 --> 00:11:49,933
That now goes to the
right disconnected brain.

205
00:11:49,933 --> 00:11:53,413
And you say to the
patient, what did you see?

206
00:11:53,413 --> 00:11:55,311
And the patient says,
I didn't see anything.

207
00:11:55,311 --> 00:11:56,353
>> Something on the left.

208
00:11:56,353 --> 00:11:57,153
I know what it is.

209
00:11:57,153 --> 00:11:58,693
I can't say it.

210
00:11:58,693 --> 00:12:00,839
I want to, but I can't.

211
00:12:00,839 --> 00:12:01,913
I know what it is.

212
00:12:01,913 --> 00:12:03,613
>> What's it have to do with?

213
00:12:03,613 --> 00:12:06,773
>> I can't tell
you that, either.

214
00:12:06,773 --> 00:12:11,783
>> They found that the left arm
and the right arm seem to be

215
00:12:11,783 --> 00:12:13,383
contradicting one another.

216
00:12:13,383 --> 00:12:16,190
So if somebody would select
a dress with her right arm,

217
00:12:16,190 --> 00:12:18,773
then the left arm would take it
back, and put it on the shelf,

218
00:12:18,773 --> 00:12:20,483
and take out another one.

219
00:12:20,483 --> 00:12:22,103
>> Frustrated.

220
00:12:22,103 --> 00:12:25,073
>> The experiments proved
that we have two brains

221
00:12:25,073 --> 00:12:26,033
in our heads.

222
00:12:26,033 --> 00:12:27,293
Not just one.

223
00:12:27,293 --> 00:12:31,463
But they do not see
the world the same way.

224
00:12:31,463 --> 00:12:33,983
>> When I started
to do psychiatry,

225
00:12:33,983 --> 00:12:37,103
nothing much was said about
what the mass of the right

226
00:12:37,103 --> 00:12:38,333
hemisphere did.

227
00:12:38,333 --> 00:12:40,463
My training was that
the left hemisphere

228
00:12:40,463 --> 00:12:44,093
was very important for
understanding and language

229
00:12:44,093 --> 00:12:45,713
and for speaking language.

230
00:12:45,713 --> 00:12:49,043
But that really, what went
on in the right hemisphere

231
00:12:49,043 --> 00:12:52,173
was not that significant.

232
00:12:52,173 --> 00:12:57,743
Michael Gazzaniga had said
that the right hemisphere

233
00:12:57,743 --> 00:13:00,023
of the human brain had
about as much intelligence

234
00:13:00,023 --> 00:13:02,123
as a chimpanzee.

235
00:13:02,123 --> 00:13:04,553
And so that wasn't encouraging.

236
00:13:04,553 --> 00:13:06,333
>> Well, I used
to give a lecture.

237
00:13:06,333 --> 00:13:09,383
The left hemisphere, don't
leave home without it.

238
00:13:09,383 --> 00:13:12,023
And that summarized
the importance

239
00:13:12,023 --> 00:13:15,803
I saw to the special
modules, we call now systems,

240
00:13:15,803 --> 00:13:16,823
in the left hemisphere.

241
00:13:16,823 --> 00:13:19,793
That's where the heavy
duty lifting comes

242
00:13:19,793 --> 00:13:21,353
for our complex cognitive life.

243
00:13:24,163 --> 00:13:27,543
>> But in this experiment
with a split brain patient,

244
00:13:27,543 --> 00:13:30,753
while the right hemisphere
is trying to make the cube,

245
00:13:30,753 --> 00:13:35,043
the left hemisphere's
hand keeps interfering.

246
00:13:35,043 --> 00:13:36,903
Because it doesn't
know what it's doing.

247
00:13:40,263 --> 00:13:43,113
Yet, the right
hemisphere on its own

248
00:13:43,113 --> 00:13:45,108
solves the problem in seconds.

249
00:13:48,123 --> 00:13:50,763
>> All of those who were
involved in the team came

250
00:13:50,763 --> 00:13:53,343
to the conclusion that each
hemisphere had, if you like,

251
00:13:53,343 --> 00:13:57,953
like a different way of
looking at the world.

252
00:13:57,953 --> 00:13:59,453
>> You separate the
two hemispheres,

253
00:13:59,453 --> 00:14:01,273
you've got mine left,
you got mine right.

254
00:14:01,273 --> 00:14:03,133
It's what grabbed
everybody's interest.

255
00:14:03,133 --> 00:14:05,123
Everybody can understand that.

256
00:14:05,123 --> 00:14:08,353
And so the left talks
and is analytical

257
00:14:08,353 --> 00:14:11,683
and the right is creative
and pulls stuff together.

258
00:14:11,683 --> 00:14:13,243
And boom.

259
00:14:13,243 --> 00:14:15,073
It was an industry.

260
00:14:15,073 --> 00:14:17,033
[MUSIC PLAYING]

261
00:14:17,033 --> 00:14:20,903
>> Thanks to pop psychology,
the right and left hemispheres

262
00:14:20,903 --> 00:14:23,093
became cartoon characters.

263
00:14:23,093 --> 00:14:26,693
It was no longer
considered serious science.

264
00:14:26,693 --> 00:14:29,933
>> The left does language and
reason and the right does airy,

265
00:14:29,933 --> 00:14:31,358
fairy pictures of image.

266
00:14:31,358 --> 00:14:33,503
And that turned out
not to be right.

267
00:14:33,503 --> 00:14:35,933
Because what people
found was that over time,

268
00:14:35,933 --> 00:14:37,793
it was obvious that
each hemisphere

269
00:14:37,793 --> 00:14:39,623
engages in everything.

270
00:14:39,623 --> 00:14:41,783
So each hemisphere--
right and left--

271
00:14:41,783 --> 00:14:45,773
is involved in reason and
in language and in emotion.

272
00:14:45,773 --> 00:14:47,843
But in crucially different ways.

273
00:14:51,533 --> 00:14:54,413
>> Although the pop culture
understanding of the left

274
00:14:54,413 --> 00:14:57,083
and right hemisphere
was eventually rejected,

275
00:14:57,083 --> 00:15:00,203
a central question
still remained.

276
00:15:00,203 --> 00:15:04,403
>> Why does the brain have
two centers of consciousness,

277
00:15:04,403 --> 00:15:08,093
each capable of maintaining
consciousness on its own

278
00:15:08,093 --> 00:15:11,063
involved in everything,
but in a different way?

279
00:15:19,663 --> 00:15:22,573
But it was only when I came to
look at the animal literature

280
00:15:22,573 --> 00:15:25,003
that just, the penny dropped.

281
00:15:25,003 --> 00:15:26,683
Professor Gunturkun.

282
00:15:26,683 --> 00:15:27,973
>> Hey, Iain.

283
00:15:27,973 --> 00:15:29,753
>> How nice of you to see me.

284
00:15:29,753 --> 00:15:30,553
>> Absolutely.

285
00:15:30,553 --> 00:15:30,853
Fantastic.

286
00:15:30,853 --> 00:15:31,693
How are you, Iain?

287
00:15:31,693 --> 00:15:32,563
>> Lovely to meet you.

288
00:15:32,563 --> 00:15:33,343
>> Absolutely.

289
00:15:33,343 --> 00:15:34,143
Same with me.

290
00:15:34,143 --> 00:15:36,403
>> I apologize for delays.

291
00:15:36,403 --> 00:15:37,703
>> No problem at all.

292
00:15:37,703 --> 00:15:38,863
This university is a maze.

293
00:15:38,863 --> 00:15:40,543
>> Just completely lost.

294
00:15:40,543 --> 00:15:42,313
>> It's an absolute maze.

295
00:15:42,313 --> 00:15:46,033
>> Dr. Onur Gunturkun is a
leading researcher in the field

296
00:15:46,033 --> 00:15:47,743
of animal neurology.

297
00:15:47,743 --> 00:15:52,933
He focuses on how birds use
each half of their brain.

298
00:15:52,933 --> 00:15:55,063
>> These are the animals
with the eye rings.

299
00:15:55,063 --> 00:15:56,943
>> Using the Velcro, you
can cover one eye at a time.

300
00:15:56,943 --> 00:15:57,368
>> Exactly.

301
00:15:57,368 --> 00:15:57,793
Exactly.

302
00:15:57,793 --> 00:15:59,683
So there is a little
cap that we have.

303
00:15:59,683 --> 00:16:03,703
And then the animal just sees
with its left or right eye.

304
00:16:03,703 --> 00:16:06,563
Because, as you know, the
optic nerves cross completely.

305
00:16:06,563 --> 00:16:07,363
>> Yes.

306
00:16:07,363 --> 00:16:09,673
>> So everything the right
eye sees goes to the left

307
00:16:09,673 --> 00:16:12,703
hemisphere and vise versa.

308
00:16:12,703 --> 00:16:15,613
>> Gunturkun devised a test
where pigeons were trained

309
00:16:15,613 --> 00:16:19,723
to recognize human beings
in vacation photos.

310
00:16:19,723 --> 00:16:21,733
Each time the birds
recognized there

311
00:16:21,733 --> 00:16:25,633
was a person in a picture,
they were rewarded.

312
00:16:25,633 --> 00:16:30,523
>> After a while, they start to
understand there are pictures

313
00:16:30,523 --> 00:16:33,883
with humans and there are
pictures without humans.

314
00:16:33,883 --> 00:16:37,243
>> But then the birds were
given a harder challenge.

315
00:16:37,243 --> 00:16:40,183
>> Now we can start
to alter the pictures.

316
00:16:40,183 --> 00:16:44,923
We cut out the head, we cut out
the arm, we cut out the trunk,

317
00:16:44,923 --> 00:16:47,503
and spread it
across the picture.

318
00:16:47,503 --> 00:16:49,873
It is like a slaughtering scene.

319
00:16:49,873 --> 00:16:52,243
We take the pictures
and chop them

320
00:16:52,243 --> 00:16:55,213
in smaller and smaller
and smaller pieces.

321
00:16:55,213 --> 00:16:57,793
The left hemisphere says, OK.

322
00:16:57,793 --> 00:16:58,703
I see a head.

323
00:16:58,703 --> 00:16:59,503
I see eyes.

324
00:16:59,503 --> 00:17:00,403
I see a nose.

325
00:17:00,403 --> 00:17:01,203
That's a human.

326
00:17:01,203 --> 00:17:02,533
I'm packing on it.

327
00:17:02,533 --> 00:17:06,853
The right hemisphere now says,
this is no human anymore.

328
00:17:06,853 --> 00:17:10,483
The right hemisphere
requires the correct position

329
00:17:10,483 --> 00:17:14,203
of the human body to
recognize the human.

330
00:17:14,203 --> 00:17:18,853
So that means both hemispheres
are doing an excellent job.

331
00:17:18,853 --> 00:17:21,073
Both hemispheres contribute.

332
00:17:21,073 --> 00:17:24,793
And both hemispheres can
decide human or non-human,

333
00:17:24,793 --> 00:17:27,372
but they do it with different
cognitive strategies.

334
00:17:29,923 --> 00:17:33,323
When pigeons are
up to find food,

335
00:17:33,323 --> 00:17:38,353
they have to discriminate
grain from pebbles.

336
00:17:38,353 --> 00:17:41,323
So that one hemisphere
is really concentrating

337
00:17:41,323 --> 00:17:43,663
on the tiny little
details of the food,

338
00:17:43,663 --> 00:17:46,993
while the other one is
glancing into the environment.

339
00:17:46,993 --> 00:17:53,903
And is on quick alert if an
aerial predator is coming.

340
00:17:53,903 --> 00:17:55,763
>> This is fundamental
to survival.

341
00:17:55,763 --> 00:17:58,613
And that was the moment
at which I realized

342
00:17:58,613 --> 00:18:03,443
this is profoundly
important to all beings that

343
00:18:03,443 --> 00:18:09,463
have to solve the conundrum
of how to eat and stay alive.

344
00:18:09,463 --> 00:18:12,843
>> McGilchrist realized
that in human beings,

345
00:18:12,843 --> 00:18:15,593
these two different kinds of
attention played out in much

346
00:18:15,593 --> 00:18:17,783
more complex ways.

347
00:18:17,783 --> 00:18:21,563
>> You won't find a neurologist
anywhere in the world who will

348
00:18:21,563 --> 00:18:23,993
dispute that there is different
kinds of attention paid

349
00:18:23,993 --> 00:18:27,593
by the left and
right hemisphere.

350
00:18:27,593 --> 00:18:30,323
Then, very clearly,
each hemisphere

351
00:18:30,323 --> 00:18:33,473
must find a different world.

352
00:18:33,473 --> 00:18:37,513
What would those two
worlds look like?

353
00:18:37,513 --> 00:18:41,393
>> McGilchrist observed that the
left hemisphere gives a narrow,

354
00:18:41,393 --> 00:18:45,563
sharply-focused
attention to detail.

355
00:18:45,563 --> 00:18:49,523
Without understanding
the larger context.

356
00:18:49,523 --> 00:18:52,883
It sees objects in relation
to their usefulness.

357
00:18:52,883 --> 00:18:55,553
It's in charge of
the right hand, which

358
00:18:55,553 --> 00:18:57,903
has the power to
manipulate things

359
00:18:57,903 --> 00:19:01,313
such as tools and technology.

360
00:19:01,313 --> 00:19:04,613
But it can't make
human connections.

361
00:19:04,613 --> 00:19:07,433
It doesn't understand
relationships, humor,

362
00:19:07,433 --> 00:19:09,593
tone of voice.

363
00:19:09,593 --> 00:19:12,833
Things and people are not
unique and individual.

364
00:19:12,833 --> 00:19:15,323
But groups that it
can organize, sort,

365
00:19:15,323 --> 00:19:19,013
and file in a system of
rules and linear connections.

366
00:19:24,673 --> 00:19:27,823
On its own, it has no
sense of the whole.

367
00:19:27,823 --> 00:19:30,943
Even people are
seen as body parts.

368
00:19:30,943 --> 00:19:34,033
The world of the left
hemisphere is lifeless.

369
00:19:34,033 --> 00:19:37,333
It shatters the world
into an assortment of bits

370
00:19:37,333 --> 00:19:39,883
without meaning.

371
00:19:39,883 --> 00:19:42,643
The right hemisphere,
by contrast,

372
00:19:42,643 --> 00:19:46,373
sees the broad
view of the world.

373
00:19:46,373 --> 00:19:47,773
It is the master of the brain.

374
00:19:51,943 --> 00:19:54,613
It perceives an
interconnected world.

375
00:19:54,613 --> 00:19:57,953
It understands
relationships, body language,

376
00:19:57,953 --> 00:20:00,613
facial expression,
and implicit meaning.

377
00:20:04,293 --> 00:20:07,623
The right hemisphere
engages with life,

378
00:20:07,623 --> 00:20:10,498
understands movement,
story, and metaphor.

379
00:20:15,523 --> 00:20:19,558
It forces how humanity fits
into the whole of creation.

380
00:20:22,753 --> 00:20:25,603
The divided brain
gives us two types

381
00:20:25,603 --> 00:20:30,613
of attention, two ways of
engaging with the world.

382
00:20:30,613 --> 00:20:35,333
It has made us the most
powerful species on Earth.

383
00:20:40,033 --> 00:20:43,153
But the left hemisphere's
narrow kind of attention

384
00:20:43,153 --> 00:20:51,433
reminded McGilchrist of
something else, our world.

385
00:20:51,433 --> 00:20:53,883
[TRAIN TRACKS]

386
00:21:03,193 --> 00:21:05,523
>> I began thinking
about how in public life,

387
00:21:05,523 --> 00:21:09,913
everything has become more
regulated, more rule-bound,

388
00:21:09,913 --> 00:21:10,713
more explicit.

389
00:21:15,333 --> 00:21:19,563
For the last 100 years, a way
of thinking which is reductive,

390
00:21:19,563 --> 00:21:21,713
mechanistic has taken us over.

391
00:21:25,113 --> 00:21:28,443
It's enabled us to manipulate
the world, to grab resources,

392
00:21:28,443 --> 00:21:30,273
to become wealthy.

393
00:21:34,313 --> 00:21:38,333
But it's also meant that
we've lost the means

394
00:21:38,333 --> 00:21:40,403
to feel satisfaction
and fulfillment

395
00:21:40,403 --> 00:21:42,758
through our place in the world.

396
00:21:45,813 --> 00:21:47,853
And we created
outside ourselves,

397
00:21:47,853 --> 00:21:51,513
a world which, very much,
looked like the interior world

398
00:21:51,513 --> 00:21:53,523
of the left hemisphere.

399
00:21:53,523 --> 00:21:57,513
Rigid lines of things
that were rolled out

400
00:21:57,513 --> 00:22:01,023
mechanically and
were non-unique.

401
00:22:05,443 --> 00:22:08,863
Bureaucracy is in its element.

402
00:22:08,863 --> 00:22:13,153
It depends on qualities which
the left hemisphere provide--

403
00:22:13,153 --> 00:22:19,693
organized ability, anonymity,
standardization, uniformity,

404
00:22:19,693 --> 00:22:21,433
abstraction, and so on.

405
00:22:24,013 --> 00:22:27,283
Systems designed to
maximize utility,

406
00:22:27,283 --> 00:22:30,883
there will be a loss
of cohesion socially

407
00:22:30,883 --> 00:22:33,163
because the left
hemisphere needs control.

408
00:22:33,163 --> 00:22:36,313
And there's a lack of
trust and a lot of paranoia

409
00:22:36,313 --> 00:22:40,903
that we need for CCTV and
monitoring of all kinds.

410
00:22:40,903 --> 00:22:43,303
[TYPING]

411
00:22:49,063 --> 00:22:51,253
The left hemisphere is
the quick and dirty one.

412
00:22:51,253 --> 00:22:53,233
Because it has to make action.

413
00:22:53,233 --> 00:22:55,003
It likes things to
be black and white.

414
00:22:55,003 --> 00:22:59,533
What do you mean there's half
or ambiguity or metaphor?

415
00:22:59,533 --> 00:23:01,003
I want to know the facts.

416
00:23:01,003 --> 00:23:03,343
It's like this or it's that.

417
00:23:03,343 --> 00:23:06,373
People think, well, the
left hemisphere is surely,

418
00:23:06,373 --> 00:23:07,753
the basis for our intelligence.

419
00:23:07,753 --> 00:23:10,813
It's the one that does
all that analysis.

420
00:23:10,813 --> 00:23:12,563
But actually, this
is not the case.

421
00:23:12,563 --> 00:23:15,163
There's a lot of evidence
that the really critical one

422
00:23:15,163 --> 00:23:17,113
from a point of
view of intelligence

423
00:23:17,113 --> 00:23:20,063
is the right hemisphere.

424
00:23:20,063 --> 00:23:22,493
Another important difference--
a very important one--

425
00:23:22,493 --> 00:23:25,103
is that between fixity
and flow, so things

426
00:23:25,103 --> 00:23:27,203
in the left
hemisphere are fixed.

427
00:23:27,203 --> 00:23:29,963
Whereas in the right
hemisphere, flow

428
00:23:29,963 --> 00:23:33,683
is what it sees and understands.

429
00:23:33,683 --> 00:23:35,843
Now, that is very profound.

430
00:23:35,843 --> 00:23:39,323
That actually changes the
whole nature of what life is.

431
00:23:39,323 --> 00:23:41,313
Nothing is just isolated.

432
00:23:41,313 --> 00:23:42,923
It is always part of a flow.

433
00:23:42,923 --> 00:23:44,963
Things can only be
understood in context.

434
00:23:44,963 --> 00:23:47,003
When you take them
out, they change.

435
00:23:47,003 --> 00:23:49,733
When you grab them and put them
in the spotlight of attention

436
00:23:49,733 --> 00:23:52,253
and make them explicit,
they change their nature.

437
00:23:52,253 --> 00:23:53,843
Jokes, for example.

438
00:23:53,843 --> 00:23:55,533
Sex, for example.

439
00:23:55,533 --> 00:23:57,404
Religion, for example.

440
00:23:57,404 --> 00:23:59,759
[APPLAUSE]

441
00:24:00,955 --> 00:24:02,163
>> Thank you very much, Iain.

442
00:24:02,163 --> 00:24:03,705
What I want to ask
you is, how do you

443
00:24:03,705 --> 00:24:06,421
guard this idea as it unfolds
in the next few years?

444
00:24:06,421 --> 00:24:07,963
>> Well, that's a
very good question.

445
00:24:07,963 --> 00:24:08,763
And I'm--

446
00:24:08,763 --> 00:24:11,883
>> There's something, I
think, very counterintuitive,

447
00:24:11,883 --> 00:24:16,638
a little bizarre, a little-- it
evokes incredulity in people.

448
00:24:16,638 --> 00:24:19,143
And when I first heard
it, I thought that, that

449
00:24:19,143 --> 00:24:20,973
sounds really strange.

450
00:24:20,973 --> 00:24:23,373
Iain's saying things that
other people haven't seen.

451
00:24:23,373 --> 00:24:25,503
The fundamental
thing he's saying

452
00:24:25,503 --> 00:24:27,711
is the philosophical
notion that what matters

453
00:24:27,711 --> 00:24:29,253
is not what the
brain hemispheres do,

454
00:24:29,253 --> 00:24:31,233
but how they do it.

455
00:24:31,233 --> 00:24:34,605
There are times when we're
very focused, very explicit

456
00:24:34,605 --> 00:24:36,063
and there are times
when we're more

457
00:24:36,063 --> 00:24:40,473
nuanced and implicit
and contextual.

458
00:24:40,473 --> 00:24:42,373
You do begin to notice
it in certain places.

459
00:24:42,373 --> 00:24:45,093
So the, sort of, creeping
bureaucratization

460
00:24:45,093 --> 00:24:48,003
that you sense, the
fragmentation of knowledge,

461
00:24:48,003 --> 00:24:50,493
the over-reliance
on quantification,

462
00:24:50,493 --> 00:24:53,103
the obsession with
evidence-based policy.

463
00:24:53,103 --> 00:24:55,323
And the desire for data--

464
00:24:55,323 --> 00:24:59,553
the, sort of, fetishization
of data, really.

465
00:24:59,553 --> 00:25:03,063
And the losing touch with
broader patterns of judgment

466
00:25:03,063 --> 00:25:06,363
and taste and discernment.

467
00:25:06,363 --> 00:25:09,063
>> Many of my McGilchrist's
insights into the brain

468
00:25:09,063 --> 00:25:13,278
hemispheres have come from
patients who have had strokes.

469
00:25:13,278 --> 00:25:15,753
[MUSIC - JURG KESSELRING]

470
00:25:30,613 --> 00:25:33,823
>> Jurg Kesselring is
a great neurologist.

471
00:25:33,823 --> 00:25:37,303
He's a clinician, but
also, a philosopher

472
00:25:37,303 --> 00:25:38,893
and a great musician,
as it happens.

473
00:25:50,163 --> 00:25:52,627
[APPLAUSE]

474
00:26:01,073 --> 00:26:03,913
>> You see how hard life
is in the mountains?

475
00:26:03,913 --> 00:26:04,853
>> It is very hard.

476
00:26:04,853 --> 00:26:06,383
I see that.

477
00:26:06,383 --> 00:26:10,293
>> You want to do something
serious and then the laughing

478
00:26:10,293 --> 00:26:11,093
winds.

479
00:26:11,093 --> 00:26:13,516
>> Come and blow everything.

480
00:26:17,277 --> 00:26:19,189
>> [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH].

481
00:26:48,893 --> 00:26:51,213
>> Something you
must go to and--

482
00:26:51,213 --> 00:26:53,173
[LAUGHING]

483
00:26:53,173 --> 00:26:54,833
Also, therapy's everywhere.

484
00:26:54,833 --> 00:26:56,463
And over here--

485
00:26:56,463 --> 00:26:58,715
>> [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH].

486
00:26:58,715 --> 00:27:00,683
[LAUGHING]

487
00:27:00,683 --> 00:27:10,943
>> [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

488
00:27:10,943 --> 00:27:13,973
>> It's been fascinating
going around and seeing some

489
00:27:13,973 --> 00:27:15,803
of the patients
that you have here.

490
00:27:15,803 --> 00:27:19,548
And I remember you telling
me about some cases.

491
00:27:19,548 --> 00:27:20,348
You mentioned--

492
00:27:20,348 --> 00:27:23,373
>> One I remember well,
there was a gentleman who is

493
00:27:23,373 --> 00:27:24,173
a writer.

494
00:27:24,173 --> 00:27:26,393
He's writing travel books.

495
00:27:26,393 --> 00:27:33,113
And one night, he woke up
and felt an arm next to him.

496
00:27:33,113 --> 00:27:35,513
And then he thought,
well, who could that be?

497
00:27:35,513 --> 00:27:38,483
Because my wife
said she will stay

498
00:27:38,483 --> 00:27:40,313
in Basel and another place.

499
00:27:40,313 --> 00:27:41,993
So it cannot be her.

500
00:27:41,993 --> 00:27:45,653
And then he turned on the
light and saw this arm

501
00:27:45,653 --> 00:27:49,283
and threw it out of
the bed and followed it

502
00:27:49,283 --> 00:27:51,053
because it was his arm.

503
00:27:51,053 --> 00:27:53,483
And then he realized
lying on the ground

504
00:27:53,483 --> 00:27:54,903
that something must be wrong.

505
00:27:54,903 --> 00:27:58,763
And he went by his own
car-- with his own car

506
00:27:58,763 --> 00:28:01,643
into the hospital.

507
00:28:01,643 --> 00:28:04,883
>> This patient relies
on her left hemisphere.

508
00:28:04,883 --> 00:28:07,928
She's been asked to spread
sauce over the entire pizza.

509
00:28:13,983 --> 00:28:22,163
>> [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

510
00:28:22,163 --> 00:28:24,803
>> What is the
definition of neglect?

511
00:28:24,803 --> 00:28:28,493
That people behave as if one
part of their outer space

512
00:28:28,493 --> 00:28:30,803
would not exist.

513
00:28:30,803 --> 00:28:34,973
This part of her surroundings
does not exist for her.

514
00:28:34,973 --> 00:28:37,553
>> Now we change
the perspective.

515
00:28:37,553 --> 00:28:39,203
>> We turn it.

516
00:28:39,203 --> 00:28:42,233
But I don't have any here.

517
00:28:42,233 --> 00:28:43,583
>> You wanted it here?

518
00:28:43,583 --> 00:28:43,943
>> Huh?

519
00:28:43,943 --> 00:28:44,743
>> And here?

520
00:28:44,743 --> 00:28:48,273
>> And she's surprised there
was no tomato sauce anymore.

521
00:28:52,043 --> 00:28:55,943
>> For people and animals,
the effect of losing the right

522
00:28:55,943 --> 00:28:59,923
hemisphere is the same.

523
00:28:59,923 --> 00:29:03,493
>> The left hemisphere on its
own is deeply deluded, in fact,

524
00:29:03,493 --> 00:29:06,643
and is unaware of its deficit.

525
00:29:06,643 --> 00:29:08,713
It doesn't have insight.

526
00:29:08,713 --> 00:29:11,773
And it doesn't realize
what it is it's missing.

527
00:29:11,773 --> 00:29:14,353
>> Hi, Mr. Cohen.

528
00:29:14,353 --> 00:29:15,323
Hi, Miriam.

529
00:29:15,323 --> 00:29:16,533
>> Hi, doctor, how are you?

530
00:29:16,533 --> 00:29:17,333
>> I'm good.

531
00:29:17,333 --> 00:29:21,403
>> Six months ago, Miriam Cohen
collapsed from an aneurysm.

532
00:29:21,403 --> 00:29:22,873
>> Look at my eyes.

533
00:29:22,873 --> 00:29:24,553
And I'm gonna put
some fingers up

534
00:29:24,553 --> 00:29:27,373
and you tell me how many
fingers you see now.

535
00:29:27,373 --> 00:29:28,363
Don't look over there.

536
00:29:28,363 --> 00:29:30,083
Look at me.

537
00:29:30,083 --> 00:29:30,973
Now?

538
00:29:30,973 --> 00:29:34,513
>> Since then, she's been
relying primarily on her left

539
00:29:34,513 --> 00:29:35,923
hemisphere.

540
00:29:35,923 --> 00:29:37,183
>> Now?

541
00:29:37,183 --> 00:29:40,613
>> It was a fortunate thing for
me that he just happened to be

542
00:29:40,613 --> 00:29:41,413
working.

543
00:29:41,413 --> 00:29:42,763
>> That's very strong.

544
00:29:42,763 --> 00:29:45,073
>> Because-- and I
thanked him later on.

545
00:29:45,073 --> 00:29:51,183
I said to him, if you weren't
there, I wouldn't be here.

546
00:29:58,003 --> 00:29:59,063
>> One, two, three.

547
00:29:59,063 --> 00:30:00,193
>> Yeah.

548
00:30:00,193 --> 00:30:03,233
>> She had quite a
severe case of neglect.

549
00:30:03,233 --> 00:30:05,773
At the beginning, she
was the same patient

550
00:30:05,773 --> 00:30:08,943
who wouldn't know her own head.

551
00:30:08,943 --> 00:30:11,503
Neglect's an interesting thing.

552
00:30:11,503 --> 00:30:14,103
People who have
strokes, particularly

553
00:30:14,103 --> 00:30:17,283
in the right parietal
area, the patients

554
00:30:17,283 --> 00:30:23,133
will not have an awareness of
the left side of their world.

555
00:30:26,853 --> 00:30:31,243
>> I would start my writing
not on the left hand side,

556
00:30:31,243 --> 00:30:33,168
I would start it in
the middle of the page.

557
00:30:35,963 --> 00:30:39,653
It's not that I couldn't see it.

558
00:30:39,653 --> 00:30:41,483
I could see it, but
my brain wouldn't

559
00:30:41,483 --> 00:30:43,613
register that it was there.

560
00:30:43,613 --> 00:30:45,143
>> Open.

561
00:30:45,143 --> 00:30:50,483
>> Miriam's stroke left her
with a skewed sense of reality.

562
00:30:50,483 --> 00:30:52,013
>> She hallucinated.

563
00:30:52,013 --> 00:30:53,013
She's an accountant.

564
00:30:53,013 --> 00:30:56,790
So she would see
numbers everywhere.

565
00:30:59,593 --> 00:31:02,903
>> She also was adamant that
there was a woman sharing her

566
00:31:02,903 --> 00:31:03,703
room.

567
00:31:07,423 --> 00:31:08,713
>> She was there.

568
00:31:08,713 --> 00:31:10,869
You never saw her.

569
00:31:10,869 --> 00:31:12,683
I said why are you in my room?

570
00:31:12,683 --> 00:31:13,723
This is not your room.

571
00:31:13,723 --> 00:31:15,883
This is my room.

572
00:31:15,883 --> 00:31:18,743
>> These are not
people who are mad.

573
00:31:18,743 --> 00:31:23,363
These delusions are
mostly due to problems

574
00:31:23,363 --> 00:31:27,583
in the right hemisphere.

575
00:31:27,583 --> 00:31:30,813
>> So if anyone talks about
the right side of the brain

576
00:31:30,813 --> 00:31:34,953
and the left side of the brain,
that is my goal in life to find

577
00:31:34,953 --> 00:31:40,053
a good balance between these
two ways of looking at the world

578
00:31:40,053 --> 00:31:43,413
and acting upon the world.

579
00:31:43,413 --> 00:31:46,263
But I'm convinced,
of course, that many

580
00:31:46,263 --> 00:31:50,643
of us with the two hemispheres
functioning beautifully

581
00:31:50,643 --> 00:31:54,018
have neglect for great
parts of the world.

582
00:32:03,305 --> 00:32:05,763
>> Well, one of the primary
features of the left hemisphere

583
00:32:05,763 --> 00:32:10,083
is that you often find this
enormous capacity for denial,

584
00:32:10,083 --> 00:32:13,593
this capacity to just ignore
things and keep them shut out.

585
00:32:17,303 --> 00:32:20,093
I think what Iain's
trying to say

586
00:32:20,093 --> 00:32:22,223
is that there's a
certain disconnection

587
00:32:22,223 --> 00:32:25,103
from the natural world
gradually happening.

588
00:32:25,103 --> 00:32:27,143
We're living in
cities much more.

589
00:32:27,143 --> 00:32:28,683
We are distracted much more.

590
00:32:28,683 --> 00:32:31,410
We have more claims
on our attention.

591
00:32:34,823 --> 00:32:38,903
The problem is when a completely
urban life shuts you off

592
00:32:38,903 --> 00:32:42,923
from the ecological resources
that sustain the life you have.

593
00:32:42,923 --> 00:32:44,313
They're all hidden from us.

594
00:32:44,313 --> 00:32:47,933
I mean, our electricity,
our gas, our water,

595
00:32:47,933 --> 00:32:51,053
our food sources, we don't
know where they're coming from.

596
00:32:51,053 --> 00:32:54,053
So there's a kind of
delusion, really, at the heart

597
00:32:54,053 --> 00:32:55,853
of modern urban life.

598
00:32:55,853 --> 00:32:57,353
This sort of implicit
understanding

599
00:32:57,353 --> 00:33:01,333
that we're a part of nature is
no longer a default position.

600
00:33:05,003 --> 00:33:08,003
People broadly accept climate
change as a global phenomenon,

601
00:33:08,003 --> 00:33:10,913
that humans are causing
it, that it's very serious,

602
00:33:10,913 --> 00:33:13,193
that we can and should
do something quickly,

603
00:33:13,193 --> 00:33:15,933
and that if we don't, there'll
be very serious effects.

604
00:33:15,933 --> 00:33:19,363
But we live as if that
knowledge was not there.

605
00:33:21,741 --> 00:33:24,033
We've got to look at it from
the perspective of science

606
00:33:24,033 --> 00:33:27,183
and perspective of technology,
from law, from culture,

607
00:33:27,183 --> 00:33:29,973
from democracy, from
behavior, from money.

608
00:33:29,973 --> 00:33:33,273
And to do that requires a form
of perception and understanding

609
00:33:33,273 --> 00:33:35,523
that isn't going to come
from the left hemisphere that

610
00:33:35,523 --> 00:33:38,838
wants to slice and dice
and execute quickly.

611
00:33:42,683 --> 00:33:46,073
>> To make quick decisions,
the left hemisphere relies

612
00:33:46,073 --> 00:33:52,133
on abstractions, categories,
and models of the world.

613
00:33:52,133 --> 00:33:56,063
>> Economists have been
amongst the most frequent

614
00:33:56,063 --> 00:33:59,603
of my correspondents, saying
you describe precisely the world

615
00:33:59,603 --> 00:34:00,753
in which I operate.

616
00:34:03,443 --> 00:34:06,173
>> The tendency to
get fixed with models,

617
00:34:06,173 --> 00:34:11,003
almost to fetishize them, has
led us astray in many ways,

618
00:34:11,003 --> 00:34:12,742
historically.

619
00:34:12,742 --> 00:34:15,083
Versions of instrumental
rationality,

620
00:34:15,083 --> 00:34:18,418
reductive reasoning that we
associate with the left brain.

621
00:34:18,418 --> 00:34:19,218
>> Yes.

622
00:34:19,218 --> 00:34:24,333
>> Taking finance through boom
bust cycles where people have

623
00:34:24,333 --> 00:34:26,913
failed to see what's
plainly obvious in front

624
00:34:26,913 --> 00:34:32,583
of their noses, that we're in
potential bubbles and so forth.

625
00:34:32,583 --> 00:34:34,293
The financial
system was supposed

626
00:34:34,293 --> 00:34:37,173
to have been based
on certain models

627
00:34:37,173 --> 00:34:39,483
and assumptions of 8% returns.

628
00:34:39,483 --> 00:34:41,733
It was supposed to
have given people

629
00:34:41,733 --> 00:34:47,323
the ability to lead a certain
decency of a future life.

630
00:34:47,323 --> 00:34:50,833
>> The closing numbers on the
markets today, at one point,

631
00:34:50,833 --> 00:34:52,213
the market fell--

632
00:34:52,213 --> 00:34:55,177
>> We're down by between
3% and 4.5%, generally,

633
00:34:55,177 --> 00:34:56,012
across this market.

634
00:34:56,012 --> 00:34:57,858
[INTERPOSING VOICES]

635
00:34:57,858 --> 00:35:00,895
>> Now we're down--

636
00:35:00,895 --> 00:35:01,753
>> 21%

637
00:35:01,753 --> 00:35:03,953
>> 43%

638
00:35:03,953 --> 00:35:06,733
>> --over in Frankfurt
is down by 9%.

639
00:35:06,733 --> 00:35:09,673
>> Yes, we can certainly think
of the crisis, in some measure,

640
00:35:09,673 --> 00:35:13,603
as being traceable to an
excessive reliance on certain

641
00:35:13,603 --> 00:35:18,733
forms of modeling, on algorithms
which was used to price

642
00:35:18,733 --> 00:35:21,893
mortgage-backed securities
and the subprime portions,

643
00:35:21,893 --> 00:35:26,343
most significantly.

644
00:35:26,343 --> 00:35:29,313
>> Everyone thought, yeah, well,
I'm such a brilliant at this

645
00:35:29,313 --> 00:35:30,633
market.

646
00:35:30,633 --> 00:35:32,313
It keeps going up--

647
00:35:32,313 --> 00:35:36,003
until it doesn't, until
one day you wake up

648
00:35:36,003 --> 00:35:38,703
and people are jumping
out of windows.

649
00:35:38,703 --> 00:35:43,863
We see traders celebrating
with 1,000-pound bottles

650
00:35:43,863 --> 00:35:46,263
of champagne.

651
00:35:46,263 --> 00:35:49,413
And on the other side
of that exact trade,

652
00:35:49,413 --> 00:35:52,473
there are people
committing suicide.

653
00:35:52,473 --> 00:35:53,793
That clarifies the mind.

654
00:35:53,793 --> 00:35:55,743
When you suddenly
think, hang on,

655
00:35:55,743 --> 00:35:58,833
this is not just an
electronic platform

656
00:35:58,833 --> 00:36:01,743
which spikes on a chart.

657
00:36:01,743 --> 00:36:04,143
There's a global,
real consequence

658
00:36:04,143 --> 00:36:07,353
to any action that is
done in any market.

659
00:36:15,533 --> 00:36:20,933
I think it's so
fundamentally wrong.

660
00:36:20,933 --> 00:36:23,783
At 2 o'clock in the morning, I
woke up and I said to my wife,

661
00:36:23,783 --> 00:36:25,113
I'm not doing this.

662
00:36:25,113 --> 00:36:27,003
I cannot do this.

663
00:36:27,003 --> 00:36:31,463
We're serving a system
that we cannot control.

664
00:36:31,463 --> 00:36:32,993
You're not cleverer
than the market.

665
00:36:32,993 --> 00:36:36,413
It's the market that's clever.

666
00:36:36,413 --> 00:36:40,943
>> When mortgage holders in
Orange County, California,

667
00:36:40,943 --> 00:36:43,133
start defaulting
on their mortgages,

668
00:36:43,133 --> 00:36:45,723
and then all of a sudden, the
whole nation of Iceland goes

669
00:36:45,723 --> 00:36:46,523
bust.

670
00:36:46,523 --> 00:36:48,383
So this level of
intense correlation

671
00:36:48,383 --> 00:36:50,303
is something we need
to be deeply aware of

672
00:36:50,303 --> 00:36:54,383
and try to come up with some
new, more sustainable paradigms

673
00:36:54,383 --> 00:36:55,373
of how we do finance.

674
00:37:02,663 --> 00:37:06,203
>> Economics detached
from a robust,

675
00:37:06,203 --> 00:37:10,053
resourceful picture of human
well-being is very dangerous.

676
00:37:10,053 --> 00:37:13,913
That's what we're living with
in large parts of the globe.

677
00:37:13,913 --> 00:37:17,573
We seem to take it as
absolutely self-evident

678
00:37:17,573 --> 00:37:21,143
that unlimited
material growth is

679
00:37:21,143 --> 00:37:24,063
the best thing we can hope for.

680
00:37:24,063 --> 00:37:28,853
And I think the biggest
single task is thinking again

681
00:37:28,853 --> 00:37:31,463
through that question
of growth and why

682
00:37:31,463 --> 00:37:35,543
it's so obvious a target
and why some kinds of growth

683
00:37:35,543 --> 00:37:37,313
are, of course,
privileged over the notion

684
00:37:37,313 --> 00:37:40,883
of the growth of real human
well-being and understanding.

685
00:37:40,883 --> 00:37:44,423
>> We've become terrifically
clever at technical matters.

686
00:37:44,423 --> 00:37:47,243
But technical matters are
only interesting if they

687
00:37:47,243 --> 00:37:50,888
can be there in the service
of a long-term vision.

688
00:37:53,413 --> 00:37:58,133
>> If our society acts as if the
left hemisphere is in control,

689
00:37:58,133 --> 00:38:01,483
how would the right
hemisphere view the world?

690
00:38:01,483 --> 00:38:05,683
One scientist reveals her
first-hand experience.

691
00:38:05,683 --> 00:38:10,273
>> Jill Bolte Taylor is a
neuroanatomist and someone

692
00:38:10,273 --> 00:38:12,673
who's also experienced a stroke.

693
00:38:12,673 --> 00:38:15,913
>> But on the morning
of December 10, 1996,

694
00:38:15,913 --> 00:38:20,413
I woke up to discover that I
had a brain disorder of my own.

695
00:38:20,413 --> 00:38:24,943
A blood vessel exploded in
the left half of my brain.

696
00:38:24,943 --> 00:38:27,193
And in the course
of four hours, I

697
00:38:27,193 --> 00:38:31,213
watched my brain completely
deteriorate in its ability

698
00:38:31,213 --> 00:38:33,973
to process all information.

699
00:38:33,973 --> 00:38:37,123
Then I realized, oh my
gosh, I'm having a stroke.

700
00:38:37,123 --> 00:38:38,443
I'm having a stroke.

701
00:38:38,443 --> 00:38:42,133
And then the next thing my
brain says to me is, wow,

702
00:38:42,133 --> 00:38:43,183
this is so cool.

703
00:38:43,183 --> 00:38:45,123
[LAUGHTER]

704
00:38:45,123 --> 00:38:46,903
This is so cool.

705
00:38:46,903 --> 00:38:49,813
How many brain scientists
have the opportunity

706
00:38:49,813 --> 00:38:52,353
to study their own brain
from the inside out?

707
00:38:55,883 --> 00:38:56,683
Dr. McGilchrist.

708
00:38:56,683 --> 00:38:57,483
>> Hey.

709
00:38:57,483 --> 00:38:58,473
>> What an honor.

710
00:38:58,473 --> 00:38:58,983
Thank you.

711
00:38:58,983 --> 00:38:59,823
>> Real good to see you.

712
00:38:59,823 --> 00:39:00,783
>> I'll give you a little tour.

713
00:39:00,783 --> 00:39:01,741
>> Thank you very much.

714
00:39:01,741 --> 00:39:04,233
>> So this is, uh-- well,
this is my main space.

715
00:39:04,233 --> 00:39:06,933
I do the stained glass brains.

716
00:39:06,933 --> 00:39:09,613
And this is my cosmic brain.

717
00:39:09,613 --> 00:39:11,983
This is actually right
hemisphere, left hemisphere.

718
00:39:11,983 --> 00:39:12,783
>> OK.

719
00:39:12,783 --> 00:39:15,513
>> It's a piece called
"Neural Processing."

720
00:39:15,513 --> 00:39:17,533
And I've just started
limestone carving.

721
00:39:17,533 --> 00:39:18,333
>> Oh, yeah.

722
00:39:18,333 --> 00:39:19,713
>> And then I did
a little brain.

723
00:39:19,713 --> 00:39:20,163
>> Right.

724
00:39:20,163 --> 00:39:22,593
>> And they're just going
to get bigger and bigger.

725
00:39:22,593 --> 00:39:23,463
I have all kinds.

726
00:39:23,463 --> 00:39:24,338
>> That sounds great.

727
00:39:24,338 --> 00:39:26,133
>> Big ones, little
ones, real ones.

728
00:39:26,133 --> 00:39:28,093
I just think the
brain is totally cool.

729
00:39:28,093 --> 00:39:28,923
>> Mm-hmm.

730
00:39:28,923 --> 00:39:29,913
Oh, right.

731
00:39:29,913 --> 00:39:35,193
[MUSIC PLAYING]

732
00:39:35,193 --> 00:39:38,943
>> And then right here is an
arteriovenous malformation,

733
00:39:38,943 --> 00:39:42,631
which was where mine
was when it blew.

734
00:39:42,631 --> 00:39:43,575
[SIREN SOUNDING]

735
00:39:43,575 --> 00:39:45,943
[EMERGENCY RADIO CHATTER]

736
00:39:45,943 --> 00:39:48,403
On the morning of the stroke,
I ended up in the hospital.

737
00:39:48,403 --> 00:39:49,963
And I wake up later
that afternoon,

738
00:39:49,963 --> 00:39:52,483
and everybody else is freaking
out because I'm drooling

739
00:39:52,483 --> 00:39:54,643
and I'm paralyzed.

740
00:39:54,643 --> 00:39:57,253
I didn't have language
for five weeks.

741
00:39:57,253 --> 00:40:02,743
I had a completely silent
mind, no language whatsoever.

742
00:40:02,743 --> 00:40:05,833
Yeah, my mom was my best friend.

743
00:40:05,833 --> 00:40:10,413
And of course, she ended
up rearing me twice.

744
00:40:10,413 --> 00:40:12,573
I wasn't that woman
I had been anymore.

745
00:40:12,573 --> 00:40:13,553
She died.

746
00:40:13,553 --> 00:40:16,883
The woman I had been died
that day, no question.

747
00:40:16,883 --> 00:40:18,813
No question.

748
00:40:18,813 --> 00:40:20,193
I didn't have her friends.

749
00:40:20,193 --> 00:40:21,453
I didn't have her knowledge.

750
00:40:21,453 --> 00:40:24,003
I didn't have anything
in common with her,

751
00:40:24,003 --> 00:40:28,263
other than I was going
to be in this body.

752
00:40:28,263 --> 00:40:29,943
Mom would take me to the store.

753
00:40:29,943 --> 00:40:33,453
People are rushing to
buy all these products,

754
00:40:33,453 --> 00:40:36,423
bombarding the sensory systems.

755
00:40:36,423 --> 00:40:39,483
Too much stimulation.

756
00:40:39,483 --> 00:40:42,933
I always say to people who
have lost the left brain

757
00:40:42,933 --> 00:40:45,243
and they're open to the big
picture right hemisphere,

758
00:40:45,243 --> 00:40:48,393
they can read people
like nobody can.

759
00:40:48,393 --> 00:40:52,053
Truthtelling, the relationship
between tone of voice

760
00:40:52,053 --> 00:40:54,903
and facial expression and
body expression, these people

761
00:40:54,903 --> 00:40:59,163
should be hired by police
departments and anybody who

762
00:40:59,163 --> 00:41:01,173
really needs a
good lie detection.

763
00:41:01,173 --> 00:41:03,603
Because it's obvious.

764
00:41:03,603 --> 00:41:04,853
>> What can it be like?

765
00:41:04,853 --> 00:41:06,393
Can you try and
give us some idea

766
00:41:06,393 --> 00:41:09,873
of what it's like to think
and to know you're thinking

767
00:41:09,873 --> 00:41:11,353
but not to have words?

768
00:41:11,353 --> 00:41:12,763
Is that very frustrating?

769
00:41:12,763 --> 00:41:14,223
>> There's zero frustration.

770
00:41:14,223 --> 00:41:17,043
I think the frustration
comes from the left brain not

771
00:41:17,043 --> 00:41:18,283
being able to express itself.

772
00:41:18,283 --> 00:41:19,083
>> Yeah.

773
00:41:19,083 --> 00:41:19,953
>> I didn't have that.

774
00:41:19,953 --> 00:41:21,245
>> You didn't really feel that.

775
00:41:21,245 --> 00:41:22,353
>> I felt none of that.

776
00:41:22,353 --> 00:41:23,773
It was wonderful.

777
00:41:23,773 --> 00:41:26,493
And the state of
blissfulness feels like awe.

778
00:41:26,493 --> 00:41:29,663
My experience became the
energy in the space between us.

779
00:41:29,663 --> 00:41:30,463
>> Right

780
00:41:30,463 --> 00:41:32,513
>> It wasn't about me and you.

781
00:41:32,513 --> 00:41:37,593
It was about the
experience of all of us.

782
00:41:37,593 --> 00:41:38,563
>> Right.

783
00:41:38,563 --> 00:41:41,433
>> I think you and I have
a whole lot in common.

784
00:41:41,433 --> 00:41:43,683
I think the difference
is significant, though.

785
00:41:43,683 --> 00:41:46,833
But I think that's
because I'm experiential.

786
00:41:46,833 --> 00:41:49,683
I agree with you completely
that our society has completely

787
00:41:49,683 --> 00:41:51,753
shifted and skewed to the left.

788
00:41:51,753 --> 00:41:56,003
And with that, comes the left
hemisphere value structure.

789
00:41:56,003 --> 00:42:00,203
Yeah, I agree with
you completely.

790
00:42:00,203 --> 00:42:02,423
>> It's too simple to
be able to just say what

791
00:42:02,423 --> 00:42:05,183
she's experiencing is
the activity of the right

792
00:42:05,183 --> 00:42:06,083
hemisphere.

793
00:42:06,083 --> 00:42:08,213
I think it's more
complex than that.

794
00:42:08,213 --> 00:42:12,393
But one cannot deny is that
that is her experience.

795
00:42:12,393 --> 00:42:14,703
And you know, she's
done fantastic work

796
00:42:14,703 --> 00:42:15,713
on the basis of it.

797
00:42:21,513 --> 00:42:25,493
>> Strokes are one way to learn
about the right hemisphere.

798
00:42:25,493 --> 00:42:28,598
But there is a time of life
when we are all experts.

799
00:42:31,763 --> 00:42:33,768
>> So, hey!

800
00:42:33,768 --> 00:42:35,521
They don't need microphones.

801
00:42:35,521 --> 00:42:36,633
>> [LAUGHS]

802
00:42:36,633 --> 00:42:37,433
Hi, guys.

803
00:42:37,433 --> 00:42:38,993
Yeah!

804
00:42:38,993 --> 00:42:41,933
>> Colwyn Trevarthen, and
he's done important research

805
00:42:41,933 --> 00:42:45,653
on childhood development in
terms of their hemispheric

806
00:42:45,653 --> 00:42:48,173
activity.

807
00:42:48,173 --> 00:42:51,773
Tell me more about what happens
in terms of hemisphere shift

808
00:42:51,773 --> 00:42:53,903
in the way in which we
bring up our children.

809
00:42:53,903 --> 00:42:55,153
>> There's a complementarity.

810
00:42:55,153 --> 00:42:55,683
>> Absolutely.

811
00:42:55,683 --> 00:42:56,553
>> They work together.

812
00:42:56,553 --> 00:42:57,353
>> Yes.

813
00:42:57,353 --> 00:43:00,533
>> But there are periods when
one hemisphere is growing more

814
00:43:00,533 --> 00:43:05,253
rapidly and taking more
responsibility for controlling

815
00:43:05,253 --> 00:43:06,363
behavior.

816
00:43:06,363 --> 00:43:08,043
And in the first
couple of years,

817
00:43:08,043 --> 00:43:11,373
the right hemisphere is
definitely more active.

818
00:43:11,373 --> 00:43:12,518
>> Yeah, yeah.

819
00:43:12,518 --> 00:43:16,683
>> And enjoying imitation and
games right from immediately

820
00:43:16,683 --> 00:43:17,483
after birth.

821
00:43:17,483 --> 00:43:19,443
>> Yes.

822
00:43:19,443 --> 00:43:24,403
>> Babies have a great
interest in sharing rituals,

823
00:43:24,403 --> 00:43:27,673
little peculiar things like
nursery songs and clever,

824
00:43:27,673 --> 00:43:28,878
clappy, handy action games.

825
00:43:31,613 --> 00:43:33,603
>> [LAUGHS]

826
00:43:33,603 --> 00:43:37,893
>> Children make music and dance
long before they can speak.

827
00:43:37,893 --> 00:43:43,773
They communicate through body
language, music, and rhythm.

828
00:43:43,773 --> 00:43:45,843
>> Musicality is
the innate need,

829
00:43:45,843 --> 00:43:50,805
the urge for human beings
to move in expressive ways.

830
00:43:50,805 --> 00:43:51,638
And it can be dance.

831
00:43:51,638 --> 00:43:52,803
It can be music.

832
00:43:52,803 --> 00:43:53,733
It can be poetry.

833
00:43:53,733 --> 00:43:55,453
It can be anything.

834
00:43:55,453 --> 00:43:59,303
And that's what art is, art
is the cultivation of play.

835
00:43:59,303 --> 00:44:00,113
>> Hello.

836
00:44:00,113 --> 00:44:02,353
>> Do you like this place?

837
00:44:02,353 --> 00:44:04,313
>> It's our nursery.

838
00:44:04,313 --> 00:44:05,903
>> What's the most
fun thing about it?

839
00:44:08,343 --> 00:44:09,143
Right.

840
00:44:09,143 --> 00:44:10,973
Right.

841
00:44:10,973 --> 00:44:14,093
>> Well, there's been a
revolution in psychology.

842
00:44:14,093 --> 00:44:17,693
It's now clear that everything
is embodied in movement,

843
00:44:17,693 --> 00:44:21,053
movement and time have
been neglected by people

844
00:44:21,053 --> 00:44:25,413
concentrating on information.

845
00:44:25,413 --> 00:44:28,313
The difference between
that and formal schooling

846
00:44:28,313 --> 00:44:30,563
is that formal schooling
assumes that they

847
00:44:30,563 --> 00:44:32,753
have a lot of knowledge
to learn and they have

848
00:44:32,753 --> 00:44:34,244
to be taught by skilled adults.

849
00:44:34,244 --> 00:44:35,044
>> Yes.

850
00:44:35,044 --> 00:44:38,273
[BELL RINGING]

851
00:44:38,273 --> 00:44:42,443
>> As children get older,
their left hemisphere matures.

852
00:44:42,443 --> 00:44:47,113
It starts showing its talent
for spoken and written language.

853
00:44:47,113 --> 00:44:50,073
The school curriculum
moves away from areas where

854
00:44:50,073 --> 00:44:51,528
the right hemisphere excels.

855
00:44:54,403 --> 00:44:58,093
>> There is a kind of
westernization or, as he would

856
00:44:58,093 --> 00:45:04,603
put it, a left hemispherization
of the way we approach

857
00:45:04,603 --> 00:45:09,313
the world, the development
of a kind of technical

858
00:45:09,313 --> 00:45:17,623
problem-solving attitude to our
lives, certainly in education.

859
00:45:17,623 --> 00:45:19,633
Almost everybody
on the planet now

860
00:45:19,633 --> 00:45:22,333
goes to the same kind of school.

861
00:45:22,333 --> 00:45:26,323
And your life trajectory is
determined by how good you

862
00:45:26,323 --> 00:45:29,843
are at that kind of learning.

863
00:45:29,843 --> 00:45:33,803
The more embodied the subjects
of the school curriculum--

864
00:45:33,803 --> 00:45:37,503
physical education,
drama-- the lower

865
00:45:37,503 --> 00:45:39,843
down the hierarchy
of esteem it is,

866
00:45:39,843 --> 00:45:41,943
you can drop them as
early as you like.

867
00:45:41,943 --> 00:45:45,443
They get less time
in the curriculum.

868
00:45:45,443 --> 00:45:49,793
So this imbalance is
absolutely institutional.

869
00:45:49,793 --> 00:45:54,223
It's in the bone marrow
of our educational system.

870
00:45:54,223 --> 00:45:57,763
>> Look around, and many of
the models we habitually use

871
00:45:57,763 --> 00:46:01,273
in education, many of the
models that often the government

872
00:46:01,273 --> 00:46:04,673
promotes in education are
mechanistic, narrowing,

873
00:46:04,673 --> 00:46:05,473
and dull.

874
00:46:05,473 --> 00:46:08,301
They buy into all the
problems that we see.

875
00:46:08,301 --> 00:46:11,233
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]

876
00:46:11,233 --> 00:46:13,633
>> So this is a person
who's giving off light.

877
00:46:13,633 --> 00:46:17,713
And do all people give off
light or just this person?

878
00:46:17,713 --> 00:46:21,564
>> It's like, like this--

879
00:46:21,564 --> 00:46:22,788
>> It's like the personality.

880
00:46:22,788 --> 00:46:23,183
>> Yeah.

881
00:46:23,183 --> 00:46:24,103
>> Yeah, yeah, yeah.

882
00:46:24,103 --> 00:46:24,913
So some people--

883
00:46:24,913 --> 00:46:27,853
We need people to think
rigorously, to be literate,

884
00:46:27,853 --> 00:46:30,973
to be able to use models,
to be careful and articulate

885
00:46:30,973 --> 00:46:32,503
and lucid.

886
00:46:32,503 --> 00:46:35,233
My concern is that, far
from asking too much,

887
00:46:35,233 --> 00:46:39,063
we ask too little
of our children.

888
00:46:39,063 --> 00:46:42,913
Far too often education is
about ingesting information,

889
00:46:42,913 --> 00:46:46,123
not about learning how to think
independently and critically

890
00:46:46,123 --> 00:46:48,526
and on many different
levels at once.

891
00:46:48,526 --> 00:46:51,244
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]

892
00:46:52,603 --> 00:46:55,633
>> In universities, the left
hemisphere's way of thinking

893
00:46:55,633 --> 00:46:58,783
becomes even more dominant.

894
00:46:58,783 --> 00:47:02,323
As students specialize
in narrow fields,

895
00:47:02,323 --> 00:47:06,803
theories and categories
become important.

896
00:47:06,803 --> 00:47:09,643
>> It's sad because also the
humanities, at some level,

897
00:47:09,643 --> 00:47:11,233
have been corrupted.

898
00:47:11,233 --> 00:47:14,083
When one reads a
piece of literature,

899
00:47:14,083 --> 00:47:17,083
it's not experienced
in terms of what can it

900
00:47:17,083 --> 00:47:19,663
teach us about the universal
experience of being

901
00:47:19,663 --> 00:47:21,673
a human being.

902
00:47:21,673 --> 00:47:26,443
Rather, it's how can it
be seen in the context

903
00:47:26,443 --> 00:47:29,963
of some narrow vision
of identity politics.

904
00:47:29,963 --> 00:47:34,073
In the Academy, there's a lot
of fuss over trigger words

905
00:47:34,073 --> 00:47:37,873
and everyone warring
over language.

906
00:47:37,873 --> 00:47:41,543
>> What certainly would not
happen is that things would be

907
00:47:41,543 --> 00:47:42,343
calm.

908
00:47:42,343 --> 00:47:45,103
Because the left hemisphere
is quite emotional.

909
00:47:45,103 --> 00:47:49,003
And one emotion that lateralizes
particularly clearly is anger.

910
00:47:49,003 --> 00:47:54,103
And it lateralizes to
the left, to discourse

911
00:47:54,103 --> 00:47:56,773
in public would become marked
by anger and aggression.

912
00:47:56,773 --> 00:47:59,048
[YELLING]

913
00:47:59,048 --> 00:47:59,958
>> Boo!

914
00:47:59,958 --> 00:48:00,758
Boo!

915
00:48:00,758 --> 00:48:01,833
>> Decency!

916
00:48:01,833 --> 00:48:03,063
Decency!

917
00:48:03,063 --> 00:48:04,043
Decency!

918
00:48:04,043 --> 00:48:05,381
Decency!

919
00:48:05,381 --> 00:48:06,273
Decency!

920
00:48:06,273 --> 00:48:12,423
>> I think it is a in certainly
Western society to try

921
00:48:12,423 --> 00:48:17,226
and solve problems by regulation
rather than by culture.

922
00:48:17,226 --> 00:48:20,853
[CHANTING]

923
00:48:20,853 --> 00:48:23,583
>> The questions that are around
free speech in universities

924
00:48:23,583 --> 00:48:26,865
and offense and all
these questions.

925
00:48:26,865 --> 00:48:29,643
[CHANTING]

926
00:48:29,643 --> 00:48:32,073
>> The trouble is that when
you start legislating about it

927
00:48:32,073 --> 00:48:35,943
and try to control it,
you produce higher levels,

928
00:48:35,943 --> 00:48:40,113
not lower levels of
anxiety, deeper division.

929
00:48:40,113 --> 00:48:42,643
And you park the
fundamental question,

930
00:48:42,643 --> 00:48:45,363
which is how do you evolve
a culture in which people

931
00:48:45,363 --> 00:48:48,213
speak with one another
patiently and respectfully?

932
00:48:48,213 --> 00:48:50,613
You can't legislate
that into existence.

933
00:48:50,613 --> 00:48:54,133
>> The monologue of
the claimers who say,

934
00:48:54,133 --> 00:48:58,893
world is like this and only
like this, this reductionism,

935
00:48:58,893 --> 00:49:02,133
that is a real
danger for our world.

936
00:49:02,133 --> 00:49:06,123
And we have to cultivate the
dialogue again and dialogue

937
00:49:06,123 --> 00:49:09,033
with different people,
different cultures, and not just

938
00:49:09,033 --> 00:49:12,243
claiming I'm the
knowledge I have--

939
00:49:12,243 --> 00:49:15,613
I know everything.

940
00:49:15,613 --> 00:49:19,173
>> But in the world of the arts,
students rely more on the right

941
00:49:19,173 --> 00:49:22,723
hemisphere to convey
multilayered and implicit

942
00:49:22,723 --> 00:49:23,523
meaning.

943
00:49:23,523 --> 00:49:28,453
>> My darling, I know
what's keeping you here.

944
00:49:28,453 --> 00:49:31,419
You must get a grip on yourself.

945
00:49:31,419 --> 00:49:33,286
You're a little
intoxicated right now.

946
00:49:33,286 --> 00:49:34,453
You need to clear your head.

947
00:49:34,453 --> 00:49:35,563
>> Be my friend.

948
00:49:35,563 --> 00:49:37,753
Let me go.

949
00:49:37,753 --> 00:49:40,013
>> Has it gone that far?

950
00:49:40,013 --> 00:49:41,963
>> It's as if she's
calling me to her side.

951
00:49:41,963 --> 00:49:42,763
Don't you see?

952
00:49:42,763 --> 00:49:44,293
This could be the making of me.

953
00:49:44,293 --> 00:49:47,923
>> In the brain, memorized
lines are worked on by the left

954
00:49:47,923 --> 00:49:48,723
hemisphere.

955
00:49:48,723 --> 00:49:52,513
>> Sane, magnificent,
wonderful man!

956
00:49:52,513 --> 00:49:55,903
>> But how they are expressed,
the tone and gestures,

957
00:49:55,903 --> 00:49:58,183
is the preserve of
the right hemisphere.

958
00:49:58,183 --> 00:50:00,235
>> I've never been in love.

959
00:50:00,235 --> 00:50:03,693
I've never experienced
that young love, blissful,

960
00:50:03,693 --> 00:50:06,213
dreamlike, romantic,
all-embracing love,

961
00:50:06,213 --> 00:50:09,763
the only love that can
bring about true happiness.

962
00:50:09,763 --> 00:50:11,263
>> What did we talk
about yesterday?

963
00:50:11,263 --> 00:50:14,083
We talked about the fact
that like lots of men,

964
00:50:14,083 --> 00:50:15,203
he wants permission.

965
00:50:15,203 --> 00:50:16,003
>> To leave.

966
00:50:16,003 --> 00:50:18,693
>> To leave.

967
00:50:18,693 --> 00:50:22,543
Iain, can you explain the left
and right side of the brain?

968
00:50:22,543 --> 00:50:26,043
>> Um, there are versions of
the world in which we are all

969
00:50:26,043 --> 00:50:27,571
living.

970
00:50:27,571 --> 00:50:29,613
We're not aware of it
because we're bringing them

971
00:50:29,613 --> 00:50:31,233
together all the time.

972
00:50:31,233 --> 00:50:35,343
But in one, the world in which
I believe we've got trapped

973
00:50:35,343 --> 00:50:39,663
is the idea of a world
of things which are

974
00:50:39,663 --> 00:50:45,043
knowable and precise and clear.

975
00:50:45,043 --> 00:50:48,633
But this isn't at
all how the world is.

976
00:50:48,633 --> 00:50:52,263
According to the right
hemisphere, everything,

977
00:50:52,263 --> 00:50:55,233
everything is connected
to everything else.

978
00:50:55,233 --> 00:50:57,633
It's all about
the relationships.

979
00:50:57,633 --> 00:50:59,078
Something completely
electrifying

980
00:50:59,078 --> 00:51:00,453
was happening in
this room, which

981
00:51:00,453 --> 00:51:02,853
I could feel very
strongly, which

982
00:51:02,853 --> 00:51:06,273
emerges from the implicit.

983
00:51:06,273 --> 00:51:09,603
But all art is like this,
that the power of it

984
00:51:09,603 --> 00:51:14,413
lies in the bits that
are not explicit.

985
00:51:14,413 --> 00:51:18,703
>> What I find reassuring
is that it's not necessarily

986
00:51:18,703 --> 00:51:19,813
knowable.

987
00:51:19,813 --> 00:51:24,109
>> Actually, it's
necessarily not knowable.

988
00:51:24,109 --> 00:51:28,273
[CLASSICAL MUSIC]

989
00:51:28,273 --> 00:51:32,893
The reason we have theatre,
poetry, we have music,

990
00:51:32,893 --> 00:51:36,103
we have religious ritual, all
these things are ways of taking

991
00:51:36,103 --> 00:51:39,988
us beyond the everyday language
that we're pinned down by.

992
00:51:39,988 --> 00:51:41,783
And it's breaking out of that.

993
00:51:41,783 --> 00:51:45,105
And only things like really
powerfully performed art,

994
00:51:45,105 --> 00:51:46,813
you know, these things
can take us there.

995
00:51:46,813 --> 00:51:51,803
[CLASSICAL MUSIC]

996
00:51:57,292 --> 00:52:00,484
[KNOCKING]

997
00:52:01,284 --> 00:52:03,593
[LAUGHTER]

998
00:52:03,593 --> 00:52:06,493
>> Doctor!

999
00:52:06,493 --> 00:52:07,493
Doctor!

1000
00:52:07,493 --> 00:52:09,993
>> Hello.

1001
00:52:09,993 --> 00:52:14,593
>> Are you the brain specialist?

1002
00:52:14,593 --> 00:52:17,593
>> No, I am not the
brain specialist.

1003
00:52:17,593 --> 00:52:19,913
No, no, I am not.

1004
00:52:19,913 --> 00:52:20,713
Yes!

1005
00:52:20,713 --> 00:52:21,627
Yes, I am!

1006
00:52:21,627 --> 00:52:24,373
[LAUGHTER]

1007
00:52:24,373 --> 00:52:26,683
>> My brain hurts.

1008
00:52:26,683 --> 00:52:28,451
[LAUGHTER]

1009
00:52:30,223 --> 00:52:32,623
>> Of course, this museum
contains the skeleton

1010
00:52:32,623 --> 00:52:36,163
of a very, very large man,
taller even than you, John.

1011
00:52:36,163 --> 00:52:37,238
And--

1012
00:52:37,238 --> 00:52:38,038
>> How tall was he?

1013
00:52:38,038 --> 00:52:40,663
>> He's thought to have been
the tallest man who ever lived.

1014
00:52:40,663 --> 00:52:44,193
But here we've got an
interesting specimen.

1015
00:52:44,193 --> 00:52:44,993
>> Ah.

1016
00:52:44,993 --> 00:52:46,813
>> This is Charles
Babbage's brain.

1017
00:52:46,813 --> 00:52:48,373
>> No, the computer guy?

1018
00:52:48,373 --> 00:52:51,193
>> The computer guy, the guy
who is credited with inventing

1019
00:52:51,193 --> 00:52:52,693
the first computing machine.

1020
00:52:52,693 --> 00:52:54,733
It was thought interesting
to find out what

1021
00:52:54,733 --> 00:52:56,383
a genius' brain looked like.

1022
00:52:56,383 --> 00:52:58,033
The answer is a
little disappointing.

1023
00:52:58,033 --> 00:52:59,743
It's rather like mine and yours.

1024
00:52:59,743 --> 00:53:01,963
>> [LAUGHS]

1025
00:53:01,963 --> 00:53:04,903
>> John, I mean, I never thought
in my wildest dreams that

1026
00:53:04,903 --> 00:53:08,443
I'd be sitting in a room in
London surrounded by brains

1027
00:53:08,443 --> 00:53:09,593
talking to you.

1028
00:53:09,593 --> 00:53:10,393
Who knew?

1029
00:53:10,393 --> 00:53:13,018
But tell me, how
did this come about?

1030
00:53:13,018 --> 00:53:14,563
>> You won't believe it.

1031
00:53:14,563 --> 00:53:15,683
A Monty Python meeting.

1032
00:53:15,683 --> 00:53:16,483
>> Right.

1033
00:53:16,483 --> 00:53:17,503
>> Seriously.

1034
00:53:17,503 --> 00:53:20,683
We had a lunch in an
Italian restaurant in Soho.

1035
00:53:20,683 --> 00:53:22,963
And at the end, Terry
Gilliam suddenly

1036
00:53:22,963 --> 00:53:24,923
started going on
about your book.

1037
00:53:24,923 --> 00:53:25,723
>> Right.

1038
00:53:25,723 --> 00:53:27,523
>> And I think he's such a fool.

1039
00:53:27,523 --> 00:53:28,966
>> [LAUGHS]

1040
00:53:30,893 --> 00:53:36,283
>> Most of my education was all
to do with the left hemisphere.

1041
00:53:36,283 --> 00:53:37,083
You know?

1042
00:53:37,083 --> 00:53:37,883
>> Yes.

1043
00:53:37,883 --> 00:53:40,553
>> I got into Cambridge on
science, then I did law.

1044
00:53:40,553 --> 00:53:42,543
And that's how I
was taught to think.

1045
00:53:42,543 --> 00:53:47,303
It's been from this very
logical, cold-blooded way

1046
00:53:47,303 --> 00:53:51,893
of thinking into something
that is hugely more intuitive.

1047
00:53:51,893 --> 00:53:54,143
And this obviously came
because I discovered

1048
00:53:54,143 --> 00:53:56,993
by accident at Cambridge
that I could write

1049
00:53:56,993 --> 00:53:59,223
stuff that made people laugh.

1050
00:53:59,223 --> 00:54:02,443
[LAUGHTER]

1051
00:54:02,443 --> 00:54:06,003
I began to see that the process
that I used when I was writing

1052
00:54:06,003 --> 00:54:08,463
stuff like this was quite
different from the process

1053
00:54:08,463 --> 00:54:11,883
that I used if I was trying
to understand a legal case.

1054
00:54:11,883 --> 00:54:16,373
They seem quite different
ways of operating.

1055
00:54:16,373 --> 00:54:17,963
I think sometimes
you have something

1056
00:54:17,963 --> 00:54:20,813
that is so completely silly
that it's almost meaningless.

1057
00:54:20,813 --> 00:54:23,513
I can think of things
in Monty Python jokes

1058
00:54:23,513 --> 00:54:27,645
that you simply are
unable to explain.

1059
00:54:27,645 --> 00:54:29,629
[MUSIC PLAYING]

1060
00:54:29,629 --> 00:54:32,109
[LAUGHTER]

1061
00:54:40,541 --> 00:54:41,533
[THUD]

1062
00:54:43,043 --> 00:54:50,153
And since then, I've been very
much more intuitive and very

1063
00:54:50,153 --> 00:54:54,623
much this sort of logical
linguistic in my approach

1064
00:54:54,623 --> 00:54:58,643
to life and much
happier as a result.

1065
00:54:58,643 --> 00:55:02,393
Well, this is sort of an
"Alas, Poor Yorick" moment.

1066
00:55:02,393 --> 00:55:04,733
This head has clearly
seen better days.

1067
00:55:04,733 --> 00:55:09,563
[MUSIC PLAYING]

1068
00:55:09,563 --> 00:55:13,733
Humor is a wonderful tool
for eliminating idiocy.

1069
00:55:13,733 --> 00:55:17,013
>> Yes, I think that's exactly
why you restore our sanity.

1070
00:55:17,013 --> 00:55:17,813
>> Well, because--

1071
00:55:17,813 --> 00:55:19,468
>> You take the mickey
of this kind of thinking.

1072
00:55:19,468 --> 00:55:21,593
>> Yes, and it's a sense
of proportion, as you say.

1073
00:55:21,593 --> 00:55:25,983
Because a sense of humor
is a sense of proportion.

1074
00:55:25,983 --> 00:55:30,993
Well, I've been studying
the DNA ideas for some time.

1075
00:55:30,993 --> 00:55:32,843
And I've come to
certain conclusions

1076
00:55:32,843 --> 00:55:34,403
based on all the
research I've done.

1077
00:55:34,403 --> 00:55:37,343
For example, this
gene just here,

1078
00:55:37,343 --> 00:55:41,463
this is the gene that determines
whether you prefer raspberries

1079
00:55:41,463 --> 00:55:42,263
or strawberries.

1080
00:55:42,263 --> 00:55:43,373
>> Ah, yes.

1081
00:55:43,373 --> 00:55:43,823
>> You know?

1082
00:55:43,823 --> 00:55:44,623
>> Indeed.

1083
00:55:44,623 --> 00:55:47,693
>> Now this gene here
is terribly interesting.

1084
00:55:47,693 --> 00:55:49,373
If you have that
gene, then you're

1085
00:55:49,373 --> 00:55:52,173
likely to enjoy
Nicolas Cage films.

1086
00:55:52,173 --> 00:55:52,973
>> Huh, right.

1087
00:55:52,973 --> 00:55:55,023
>> So that's another
mystery here.

1088
00:55:55,023 --> 00:55:57,023
And this one here, which
is very strong for you,

1089
00:55:57,023 --> 00:56:02,963
is someone who spent 20
years writing a book.

1090
00:56:02,963 --> 00:56:05,223
>> I wish I didn't
have that gene.

1091
00:56:05,223 --> 00:56:06,023
Because--

1092
00:56:06,023 --> 00:56:07,133
>> Because you could
get on with your life.

1093
00:56:07,133 --> 00:56:08,819
>> I could get on
with a life, yes.

1094
00:56:08,819 --> 00:56:12,713
[LAUGHING]

1095
00:56:12,713 --> 00:56:14,423
Can we do something
about it, please?

1096
00:56:14,423 --> 00:56:15,854
[LAUGHS]

1097
00:56:22,063 --> 00:56:27,483
>> If our society is relying
too much on the left hemisphere,

1098
00:56:27,483 --> 00:56:30,633
how have past civilizations
perceived their world?

1099
00:56:30,633 --> 00:56:35,052
[MUSIC PLAYING]

1100
00:56:38,493 --> 00:56:42,483
>> When we began to look at the
main movements in the history

1101
00:56:42,483 --> 00:56:47,553
of ideas, a person emerged
which was quite extraordinary

1102
00:56:47,553 --> 00:56:50,633
and so much more interesting
than I could possibly have

1103
00:56:50,633 --> 00:56:51,503
imagined.

1104
00:56:54,793 --> 00:56:58,033
What I could see was that
three times in the West,

1105
00:56:58,033 --> 00:57:02,503
there had been a period of
flourishing of a civilization--

1106
00:57:05,423 --> 00:57:09,293
Athens in the 6th century BC,
the beginning of the empire

1107
00:57:09,293 --> 00:57:12,983
in Rome, then once again
in the early Renaissance--

1108
00:57:15,833 --> 00:57:18,593
and that this civilization,
in each three cases,

1109
00:57:18,593 --> 00:57:20,858
showed a marvelous balance
of right hemisphere

1110
00:57:20,858 --> 00:57:24,133
and left hemisphere
modes of thinking.

1111
00:57:24,133 --> 00:57:27,013
But in each case, it
ended up with a movement

1112
00:57:27,013 --> 00:57:29,773
further and further towards
that of the left hemisphere,

1113
00:57:29,773 --> 00:57:32,053
after which the
civilization collapsed.

1114
00:57:35,863 --> 00:57:40,183
>> In ancient Greece and Rome,
statues and paintings portrayed

1115
00:57:40,183 --> 00:57:44,973
individuals, people
with character.

1116
00:57:44,973 --> 00:57:47,343
But as the Roman
Empire declined,

1117
00:57:47,343 --> 00:57:50,973
subjects often faced
forward without emotion.

1118
00:57:50,973 --> 00:57:53,583
Individual character
gave way to expressions

1119
00:57:53,583 --> 00:57:55,143
of power and status.

1120
00:58:01,506 --> 00:58:03,673
>> So one of the things
that distinguishes the right

1121
00:58:03,673 --> 00:58:06,043
hemisphere is the
concept of depth.

1122
00:58:06,043 --> 00:58:09,133
It's a very important one,
philosophically speaking.

1123
00:58:09,133 --> 00:58:11,653
And one can think in
quite concrete terms

1124
00:58:11,653 --> 00:58:18,343
of depth in space, depth in
time, and depth of emotion.

1125
00:58:18,343 --> 00:58:20,706
Here we've got a
crucifixion scene

1126
00:58:20,706 --> 00:58:22,123
in the middle of
the 14th century.

1127
00:58:25,263 --> 00:58:27,513
There is no depth
to this picture.

1128
00:58:27,513 --> 00:58:30,093
There is no landscape
that's situated

1129
00:58:30,093 --> 00:58:35,043
in the natural world and nothing
to situate it historically.

1130
00:58:35,043 --> 00:58:36,933
And it's not a
criticism of it to say

1131
00:58:36,933 --> 00:58:41,793
that it doesn't have such
depth or any relationship

1132
00:58:41,793 --> 00:58:43,853
to the world around.

1133
00:58:43,853 --> 00:58:47,223
>> But during the
Renaissance, art changes,

1134
00:58:47,223 --> 00:58:48,918
suggesting a shift in the mind.

1135
00:58:51,773 --> 00:58:55,433
>> When we come forward here to
this "Adoration of the Kings"

1136
00:58:55,433 --> 00:59:02,363
in 1500, the building work here
obeys the laws of perspective

1137
00:59:02,363 --> 00:59:05,903
and at the same time gives us a
sense of temporal perspective,

1138
00:59:05,903 --> 00:59:11,243
that this event is taking place
at some point in the past,

1139
00:59:11,243 --> 00:59:13,803
hence the ruin.

1140
00:59:13,803 --> 00:59:15,503
You will only get
that perspective

1141
00:59:15,503 --> 00:59:20,963
from the right hemisphere
take on the world.

1142
00:59:28,073 --> 00:59:31,903
It's a mistake to think of
the arts or the sciences

1143
00:59:31,903 --> 00:59:34,873
as being one hemisphere
or the other.

1144
00:59:34,873 --> 00:59:39,283
A Renaissance man was somebody
who was learned and experienced

1145
00:59:39,283 --> 00:59:42,913
in many aspects of knowledge.

1146
00:59:42,913 --> 00:59:47,983
What you see is this broad
perspective on life in which

1147
00:59:47,983 --> 00:59:49,883
science and art came together.

1148
00:59:49,883 --> 00:59:54,027
They weren't separate, as
they so often are today.

1149
00:59:54,027 --> 00:59:57,923
[MUSIC PLAYING]

1150
01:00:04,753 --> 01:00:08,983
>> If you go from hemisphere
to cultural history,

1151
01:00:08,983 --> 01:00:11,813
it will feel incongruous
and like a non sequitur.

1152
01:00:11,813 --> 01:00:13,633
It won't feel like
it makes sense.

1153
01:00:13,633 --> 01:00:16,033
But remember,
hemisphere is really

1154
01:00:16,033 --> 01:00:19,923
shorthand for a way
of seeing the world.

1155
01:00:19,923 --> 01:00:23,253
And what he's arguing is that
of these two broad patterns

1156
01:00:23,253 --> 01:00:26,133
of perception, two broad
ways of viewing the world,

1157
01:00:26,133 --> 01:00:30,123
historically, you see them in
a kind of battle for supremacy.

1158
01:00:35,333 --> 01:00:40,133
>> One of the most daring
maneuvers of the left

1159
01:00:40,133 --> 01:00:42,593
hemisphere is the
Industrial Revolution.

1160
01:00:42,593 --> 01:00:46,703
We began a full-scale
onslaught on the natural world,

1161
01:00:46,703 --> 01:00:50,483
that we were the masters and
we could control and exploit

1162
01:00:50,483 --> 01:00:54,983
mere material, as we saw the
natural world as something

1163
01:00:54,983 --> 01:00:57,023
there for us to utilize.

1164
01:01:00,683 --> 01:01:01,763
We saw machines.

1165
01:01:01,763 --> 01:01:03,743
We saw a landscape
that was increasingly

1166
01:01:03,743 --> 01:01:09,233
molded by our efforts to slice
through it with railway lines,

1167
01:01:09,233 --> 01:01:15,143
to carve tunnels, to
put our stamp on nature.

1168
01:01:15,143 --> 01:01:19,313
>> The Industrial Revolution
also changed how artists saw

1169
01:01:19,313 --> 01:01:20,303
the world.

1170
01:01:20,303 --> 01:01:23,543
In the early 20th century,
modern art frequently

1171
01:01:23,543 --> 01:01:28,133
portrayed the world in terms of
fragments, cubes, and geometric

1172
01:01:28,133 --> 01:01:29,943
shapes.

1173
01:01:29,943 --> 01:01:33,303
>> Artists always think that
they can escape painting

1174
01:01:33,303 --> 01:01:35,013
in the spirit of the age.

1175
01:01:35,013 --> 01:01:38,313
But their very rebellion
betrays the culture out

1176
01:01:38,313 --> 01:01:40,393
of which they came.

1177
01:01:40,393 --> 01:01:43,293
Art doesn't come
out of thin air.

1178
01:01:43,293 --> 01:01:47,148
It comes out of a culture.

1179
01:01:47,148 --> 01:01:49,273
I think there's something
different about the world

1180
01:01:49,273 --> 01:01:53,773
that we have entered
in the last 100 years.

1181
01:01:53,773 --> 01:01:57,373
What we find is
that various kinds

1182
01:01:57,373 --> 01:02:02,383
of ways of looking at the
world that occur to people who

1183
01:02:02,383 --> 01:02:04,723
have damage in the
right hemisphere

1184
01:02:04,723 --> 01:02:07,153
start to become fashionable.

1185
01:02:07,153 --> 01:02:09,108
This is absolutely fascinating.

1186
01:02:14,233 --> 01:02:17,653
As we come forward
into the 20th century,

1187
01:02:17,653 --> 01:02:21,403
it reflected outwards
onto the world aspects

1188
01:02:21,403 --> 01:02:23,863
of the left
hemisphere with cities

1189
01:02:23,863 --> 01:02:29,413
that were laid out on grids
which were full of structures

1190
01:02:29,413 --> 01:02:36,013
that were rectilinear, the left
hemisphere way of thinking,

1191
01:02:36,013 --> 01:02:38,563
of being able to use things.

1192
01:02:38,563 --> 01:02:43,000
[MUSIC PLAYING]

1193
01:02:52,367 --> 01:02:56,453
>> McGilchrist's theory of the
brain and Western civilization

1194
01:02:56,453 --> 01:02:59,813
attracts attention from
all over the world.

1195
01:02:59,813 --> 01:03:03,683
Some leading scientists welcome
his controversial theory.

1196
01:03:03,683 --> 01:03:07,703
>> So the distinctions that Iain
is playing with between these

1197
01:03:07,703 --> 01:03:11,723
two modes of knowing, modes of
experiencing that he associates

1198
01:03:11,723 --> 01:03:14,483
with the two hemispheres,
that distinction makes a lot

1199
01:03:14,483 --> 01:03:15,453
of sense to me.

1200
01:03:15,453 --> 01:03:19,283
And I think it's extremely
important in the modern world.

1201
01:03:19,283 --> 01:03:23,063
>> There aren't that many
academics who can span,

1202
01:03:23,063 --> 01:03:29,063
who have that broad span that
can go from very authoritative

1203
01:03:29,063 --> 01:03:33,563
analysis of scientific data
through to the big picture

1204
01:03:33,563 --> 01:03:35,963
and even on into spirituality.

1205
01:03:35,963 --> 01:03:38,483
>> But among others in
the scientific community,

1206
01:03:38,483 --> 01:03:41,573
there is serious resistance
to the link between the brain

1207
01:03:41,573 --> 01:03:42,713
and society.

1208
01:03:42,713 --> 01:03:46,553
>> You talk about this division
as if it has a purpose.

1209
01:03:46,553 --> 01:03:48,563
But that's not how things work.

1210
01:03:48,563 --> 01:03:50,453
It exists as a consequence.

1211
01:03:50,453 --> 01:03:52,833
>> It's just your theory
that there isn't a purpose.

1212
01:03:52,833 --> 01:03:54,458
You don't know that
there's no purpose.

1213
01:03:54,458 --> 01:03:59,003
It's an assumption of science
that there is no purpose.

1214
01:03:59,003 --> 01:04:02,903
>> This book is taking a
selected set of neuroscience

1215
01:04:02,903 --> 01:04:07,733
findings and trying to
relate them to the clinical

1216
01:04:07,733 --> 01:04:12,963
psychiatric experience, telling
a story that tries to mesh

1217
01:04:12,963 --> 01:04:14,873
those two things.

1218
01:04:14,873 --> 01:04:17,813
I'm not comfortable with
that just because I'm

1219
01:04:17,813 --> 01:04:20,483
one of the guys committed
to actually finding out what

1220
01:04:20,483 --> 01:04:24,323
these patients are,
how they behave.

1221
01:04:24,323 --> 01:04:28,253
And I don't have the
freedom to just go off

1222
01:04:28,253 --> 01:04:32,013
on a larger metaphor.

1223
01:04:32,013 --> 01:04:34,643
I think here's how
you think about it.

1224
01:04:34,643 --> 01:04:37,033
The brain is as
mechanical as clockwork,

1225
01:04:37,033 --> 01:04:39,283
a famous English
physicist said that.

1226
01:04:39,283 --> 01:04:40,933
Let's just get over that.

1227
01:04:40,933 --> 01:04:42,893
That's the way it is.

1228
01:04:42,893 --> 01:04:47,143
>> So we life scientists,
we read the papers,

1229
01:04:47,143 --> 01:04:50,803
come up with a working
hypothesis that is one step

1230
01:04:50,803 --> 01:04:54,373
ahead of what we know,
but not two steps.

1231
01:04:54,373 --> 01:04:56,903
Two steps are punished.

1232
01:04:56,903 --> 01:05:00,923
So I think there
are two options.

1233
01:05:00,923 --> 01:05:04,123
One option is in
30 years, it could

1234
01:05:04,123 --> 01:05:08,953
be the Bible of neuroscientists
or it could be forgotten.

1235
01:05:08,953 --> 01:05:10,453
I think there is
nothing in between.

1236
01:05:16,833 --> 01:05:19,173
>> Stepping away
from this debate,

1237
01:05:19,173 --> 01:05:24,065
McGilchrist seeks a
different kind of evidence.

1238
01:05:24,065 --> 01:05:28,457
[MUSIC PLAYING]

1239
01:05:35,803 --> 01:05:38,713
Scientists have argued
that the human brain has

1240
01:05:38,713 --> 01:05:41,443
been the same machine
throughout history

1241
01:05:41,443 --> 01:05:43,663
and that every major
civilization was

1242
01:05:43,663 --> 01:05:46,633
built by people with
the same kind of brain

1243
01:05:46,633 --> 01:05:49,573
and the same
perception of reality.

1244
01:05:49,573 --> 01:05:52,663
But McGilchrist believes
that the brain shapes

1245
01:05:52,663 --> 01:05:56,173
and is shaped by human culture.

1246
01:05:56,173 --> 01:05:58,288
And how do other
cultures view the world?

1247
01:06:01,543 --> 01:06:04,603
It is a question that is
studied at Harvard University.

1248
01:06:08,753 --> 01:06:11,663
>> A lot of psychologists have
the strong intuition that what

1249
01:06:11,663 --> 01:06:12,926
they study is something deep.

1250
01:06:12,926 --> 01:06:14,343
It's something
about human nature.

1251
01:06:14,343 --> 01:06:17,003
It's something fundamental
to how human brains operate.

1252
01:06:17,003 --> 01:06:18,653
When neuroscientists
measure the brain,

1253
01:06:18,653 --> 01:06:21,173
they think they're
seeing a piece that's

1254
01:06:21,173 --> 01:06:23,423
constructed by human
genes that's human nature.

1255
01:06:23,423 --> 01:06:24,923
But actually, our
brains are heavily

1256
01:06:24,923 --> 01:06:26,273
influenced by the environments.

1257
01:06:26,273 --> 01:06:28,673
And our environments are
heavily culturally constructed,

1258
01:06:28,673 --> 01:06:31,283
our social relationships,
the physical environments

1259
01:06:31,283 --> 01:06:33,023
we operate in.

1260
01:06:33,023 --> 01:06:37,493
96% of psychological studies
are done with Westerners.

1261
01:06:37,493 --> 01:06:40,020
And most of those are actually
American undergraduates,

1262
01:06:40,020 --> 01:06:41,603
just because of the
bulk of psychology

1263
01:06:41,603 --> 01:06:43,653
being done in the US.

1264
01:06:43,653 --> 01:06:48,693
So this really gives us a biased
picture of human psychology.

1265
01:06:48,693 --> 01:06:51,483
And we don't know to what
degree those things extend

1266
01:06:51,483 --> 01:06:53,433
to other members of the species.

1267
01:06:56,763 --> 01:06:58,983
>> Henrich and his
colleagues decided to take

1268
01:06:58,983 --> 01:07:03,553
their psychology tests
to the rest of the world,

1269
01:07:03,553 --> 01:07:06,963
people in Tahiti and the Amazon.

1270
01:07:06,963 --> 01:07:11,163
One of the tests features
an optical illusion.

1271
01:07:11,163 --> 01:07:14,643
Which line is longer?

1272
01:07:14,643 --> 01:07:17,733
They are both the same.

1273
01:07:17,733 --> 01:07:20,133
>> Westerners have
the biggest illusion.

1274
01:07:20,133 --> 01:07:22,773
And hunter gatherers don't
actually see the illusion.

1275
01:07:22,773 --> 01:07:26,853
So they accurately
see the two lines.

1276
01:07:26,853 --> 01:07:28,603
We live in a world
of right angles,

1277
01:07:28,603 --> 01:07:31,113
so our brains get really
good at converting

1278
01:07:31,113 --> 01:07:33,423
that presence of right
angles in our environment

1279
01:07:33,423 --> 01:07:35,553
and using that to create
a spatial understanding

1280
01:07:35,553 --> 01:07:37,713
in our brains.

1281
01:07:37,713 --> 01:07:39,903
But in the world of
hunter gatherers,

1282
01:07:39,903 --> 01:07:42,193
there might not be
any right angles.

1283
01:07:42,193 --> 01:07:44,825
So their brains are
calibrated more accurately.

1284
01:07:47,993 --> 01:07:50,323
So it's a basic difference
across human societies

1285
01:07:50,323 --> 01:07:53,773
as our minds adapt to the
culturally constructed world

1286
01:07:53,773 --> 01:07:54,573
that we live in.

1287
01:07:57,093 --> 01:07:59,643
>> [SPEAKING CHINESE]

1288
01:08:02,103 --> 01:08:04,443
>> At Queen's
University in Canada,

1289
01:08:04,443 --> 01:08:08,373
research is being done on
how Asian and Western minds

1290
01:08:08,373 --> 01:08:10,273
perceive the world differently.

1291
01:08:10,273 --> 01:08:11,533
>> I grew up in China.

1292
01:08:11,533 --> 01:08:14,973
I spent first 20
some years there.

1293
01:08:14,973 --> 01:08:17,313
It was not hard for me to
get interested in culture

1294
01:08:17,313 --> 01:08:19,803
because my own background.

1295
01:08:19,803 --> 01:08:22,293
People think
differently, depending

1296
01:08:22,293 --> 01:08:24,123
on their cultural background.

1297
01:08:24,123 --> 01:08:26,673
Compared to North
Americans, East Asians

1298
01:08:26,673 --> 01:08:29,583
are more sensitive
to the context.

1299
01:08:29,583 --> 01:08:31,563
They attend more to the context.

1300
01:08:31,563 --> 01:08:36,783
When we show people the pictures
of panda, monkey, banana,

1301
01:08:36,783 --> 01:08:40,173
Chinese actually are more likely
to put monkey and the banana

1302
01:08:40,173 --> 01:08:43,683
together because
monkeys like banana.

1303
01:08:43,683 --> 01:08:46,112
So they focus on
that relationship.

1304
01:08:46,112 --> 01:08:47,493
[SPEAKING CHINESE]

1305
01:08:49,593 --> 01:08:52,203
Next, [INAUDIBLE]
is more linear?

1306
01:08:52,203 --> 01:08:56,442
>> I would say it's the
dragonfly and the bee.

1307
01:08:56,442 --> 01:08:58,033
>> Why?

1308
01:08:58,033 --> 01:09:00,248
>> Because they're
both flying insects.

1309
01:09:00,248 --> 01:09:01,048
>> OK.

1310
01:09:04,022 --> 01:09:06,453
In traditional Chinese
and Japanese paintings,

1311
01:09:06,453 --> 01:09:10,723
you do see less focus on
the individual person.

1312
01:09:10,723 --> 01:09:13,902
You barely see the face.

1313
01:09:13,902 --> 01:09:15,942
You see the overall scenes.

1314
01:09:15,942 --> 01:09:16,933
You see mountains.

1315
01:09:16,933 --> 01:09:19,633
You see trees, flowers.

1316
01:09:19,633 --> 01:09:22,845
The person actually
is minimized.

1317
01:09:22,845 --> 01:09:25,303
>> People get very uncomfortable
with the idea that culture

1318
01:09:25,303 --> 01:09:26,893
produces biological differences.

1319
01:09:26,893 --> 01:09:28,268
Because normally
in our minds, we

1320
01:09:28,268 --> 01:09:30,313
separate biology and culture.

1321
01:09:30,313 --> 01:09:32,383
So it certainly gives
you an appreciation

1322
01:09:32,383 --> 01:09:33,853
the degree to which
things you take

1323
01:09:33,853 --> 01:09:36,553
to be just how the world
works or how people are

1324
01:09:36,553 --> 01:09:37,433
is not the case.

1325
01:09:37,433 --> 01:09:40,213
It's a peculiarity of this
certain cultural trajectory

1326
01:09:40,213 --> 01:09:43,723
that you happened
to be born into.

1327
01:09:43,723 --> 01:09:47,232
>> Some cultures with a more
balanced way of seeing reality

1328
01:09:47,232 --> 01:09:49,043
may live within Western society.

1329
01:09:52,793 --> 01:09:56,033
>> We know this as
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]..

1330
01:09:58,553 --> 01:10:01,553
Probably the best
translation would be

1331
01:10:01,553 --> 01:10:06,203
"an inlet into the mountains."

1332
01:10:06,203 --> 01:10:10,463
The way we look at the world
inside the Blackfoot mind,

1333
01:10:10,463 --> 01:10:14,993
what you would see
is a panoramic view.

1334
01:10:14,993 --> 01:10:15,993
>> Yeah.

1335
01:10:15,993 --> 01:10:21,653
>> How do we fit in
into this whole picture?

1336
01:10:21,653 --> 01:10:24,473
And kind of drawing
on some of the work

1337
01:10:24,473 --> 01:10:27,773
you've done, hey, that's very--

1338
01:10:27,773 --> 01:10:32,213
that's very right sided,
right brain thinking,

1339
01:10:32,213 --> 01:10:35,913
looking at this big
picture how we fit in.

1340
01:10:35,913 --> 01:10:36,713
>> Yes.

1341
01:10:36,713 --> 01:10:41,903
>> But at the same time,
nothing is ever at a standstill.

1342
01:10:41,903 --> 01:10:47,243
That's what we refer
to as that flux.

1343
01:10:47,243 --> 01:10:49,593
>> Everything is related--

1344
01:10:49,593 --> 01:10:51,653
physicists say this--
to everything else.

1345
01:10:51,653 --> 01:10:56,003
And is that also in the
wisdom and the culture

1346
01:10:56,003 --> 01:10:57,693
of First Nation people?

1347
01:10:57,693 --> 01:11:02,693
>> If you hear Native prayers,
they will talk about "all

1348
01:11:02,693 --> 01:11:04,823
my relations."

1349
01:11:04,823 --> 01:11:08,123
So when they're talking
about all my relations,

1350
01:11:08,123 --> 01:11:10,793
they're not talking
about human relations,

1351
01:11:10,793 --> 01:11:12,833
they're talking
about these trees.

1352
01:11:12,833 --> 01:11:14,513
They're talking about the water.

1353
01:11:14,513 --> 01:11:15,313
>> Yes.

1354
01:11:15,313 --> 01:11:18,623
>> They're talking about the
rocks, those birds out there.

1355
01:11:18,623 --> 01:11:21,653
All those animals,
they're all my relations.

1356
01:11:21,653 --> 01:11:22,503
>> Yes, yes.

1357
01:11:22,503 --> 01:11:23,033
>> See?

1358
01:11:23,033 --> 01:11:23,833
>> Yes.

1359
01:11:23,833 --> 01:11:29,813
>> And that's where we fit
ourselves into that relational

1360
01:11:29,813 --> 01:11:31,793
network.

1361
01:11:31,793 --> 01:11:34,433
>> Does that suggest,
as it does to me,

1362
01:11:34,433 --> 01:11:39,773
that rocks and lakes and streams
and waterfalls have a life.

1363
01:11:39,773 --> 01:11:42,593
They're not just sort of things.

1364
01:11:42,593 --> 01:11:44,333
>> They're all animate.

1365
01:11:44,333 --> 01:11:45,833
>> Yes.

1366
01:11:45,833 --> 01:11:50,243
>> In our way of thinking,
in fact, in Blackfoot,

1367
01:11:50,243 --> 01:11:54,083
there is no word for inanimate.

1368
01:11:54,083 --> 01:11:59,303
So that's the reason why our
elders always come out and say,

1369
01:11:59,303 --> 01:12:00,813
this is my church.

1370
01:12:00,813 --> 01:12:01,613
>> Yes.

1371
01:12:01,613 --> 01:12:02,723
Yeah.

1372
01:12:02,723 --> 01:12:04,713
>> I am the environment.

1373
01:12:04,713 --> 01:12:05,513
>> Yes.

1374
01:12:05,513 --> 01:12:06,563
>> I am the environment.

1375
01:12:06,563 --> 01:12:07,523
>> This is me.

1376
01:12:07,523 --> 01:12:08,323
>> Yeah.

1377
01:12:08,323 --> 01:12:09,803
This is me.

1378
01:12:09,803 --> 01:12:11,043
>> That's actually wonderful.

1379
01:12:16,653 --> 01:12:19,803
>> If there are these competing
forms of perception and there

1380
01:12:19,803 --> 01:12:25,293
are mechanisms culturally that
make them compete and play out

1381
01:12:25,293 --> 01:12:29,823
and make one usurp the other,
and I think he argued that

1382
01:12:29,823 --> 01:12:32,628
pretty coherently, then
we should act on it.

1383
01:12:32,628 --> 01:12:34,753
You know, we should figure
out what to do about it.

1384
01:12:34,753 --> 01:12:38,703
>> The question is whether we
as persons have agency and are

1385
01:12:38,703 --> 01:12:41,833
capable to do something and
whether we can translate that

1386
01:12:41,833 --> 01:12:42,633
into society.

1387
01:12:44,893 --> 01:12:50,253
>> Here's the area where you
had the bleeding in the brain.

1388
01:12:50,253 --> 01:12:51,833
There's no more blood there.

1389
01:12:51,833 --> 01:12:54,453
And we'll check the aneurysm
to make sure nothing's coming

1390
01:12:54,453 --> 01:12:55,253
back.

1391
01:12:55,253 --> 01:12:56,148
>> OK.

1392
01:13:01,973 --> 01:13:03,413
There's been a big change.

1393
01:13:06,743 --> 01:13:13,343
I believe that you have
to want to get better.

1394
01:13:13,343 --> 01:13:16,793
It's very important
that in your mind

1395
01:13:16,793 --> 01:13:20,003
you have to say I'm
gonna get back there

1396
01:13:20,003 --> 01:13:22,163
to where I was before.

1397
01:13:22,163 --> 01:13:24,383
I want to do everything
I was doing before

1398
01:13:24,383 --> 01:13:27,758
and I'm going to do it no
matter what I need to do.

1399
01:13:31,493 --> 01:13:35,243
>> This is my
neuroplastic attitude.

1400
01:13:35,243 --> 01:13:40,223
We are not just the victims
of our flattened world

1401
01:13:40,223 --> 01:13:43,713
and the dogmas that
some people put upon us.

1402
01:13:43,713 --> 01:13:45,693
But we can do something else.

1403
01:13:45,693 --> 01:13:49,043
And our patients are the best
teachers in this respect.

1404
01:13:49,043 --> 01:13:52,953
That in spite of deficits,
we can change something.

1405
01:13:52,953 --> 01:13:55,583
And this is what we want to do.

1406
01:13:55,583 --> 01:13:59,003
>> Like you, I appreciate
that humanity is enormously

1407
01:13:59,003 --> 01:13:59,873
resourceful.

1408
01:13:59,873 --> 01:14:01,643
And there must have
been times in history

1409
01:14:01,643 --> 01:14:04,523
when we could not have foreseen
what was coming in terms

1410
01:14:04,523 --> 01:14:06,143
of a shift in the ideas.

1411
01:14:06,143 --> 01:14:08,633
And we need that shift now.

1412
01:14:08,633 --> 01:14:12,143
>> Maybe it's asking too much
of Iain's work to say just solve

1413
01:14:12,143 --> 01:14:14,543
the problem for us, you know?

1414
01:14:14,543 --> 01:14:18,293
What he can do is point towards
the direction of the solution.

1415
01:14:18,293 --> 01:14:20,303
If we can get better
at seeing things

1416
01:14:20,303 --> 01:14:24,143
more holistically, more
specifically, more in context,

1417
01:14:24,143 --> 01:14:27,233
if we can get better at
systematically resisting

1418
01:14:27,233 --> 01:14:29,153
attempts to turn
things into algorithm,

1419
01:14:29,153 --> 01:14:32,063
to always measure,
to always quantify,

1420
01:14:32,063 --> 01:14:34,823
if we can get better and
more robust at doing that,

1421
01:14:34,823 --> 01:14:38,733
the world will begin to
steer towards a better place.

1422
01:14:38,733 --> 01:14:46,033
>> We need to take advantage
of other systems of knowledge.

1423
01:14:46,033 --> 01:14:50,863
We need to have a balance.

1424
01:14:50,863 --> 01:14:53,953
If we do that, we will have--

1425
01:14:53,953 --> 01:14:59,560
we will be around as a
species for a long time.

1426
01:14:59,560 --> 01:15:00,643
>> Well, then let us hope.

1427
01:15:00,643 --> 01:15:01,831
Let us hope.

1428
01:15:01,831 --> 01:15:06,313
[MUSIC PLAYING]

1429
01:15:14,779 --> 01:15:18,073
>> I want my ideas to be
picked up by other people

1430
01:15:18,073 --> 01:15:22,363
and internalized so that they
use them as a driver to look

1431
01:15:22,363 --> 01:15:25,873
at the world in a different way.

1432
01:15:25,873 --> 01:15:28,063
Things that were
anciently known,

1433
01:15:28,063 --> 01:15:31,603
they were embodied
in myths, in drama,

1434
01:15:31,603 --> 01:15:35,083
in poetry, the way
of thinking that

1435
01:15:35,083 --> 01:15:37,273
was kept for the
kind of knowledge

1436
01:15:37,273 --> 01:15:44,383
that logic can't reach, our way
of thinking, feeling and being.

1437
01:15:44,383 --> 01:15:48,733
Einstein said the rational
mind is a faithful servant,

1438
01:15:48,733 --> 01:15:52,873
but the intuitive mind
is a precious gift.

1439
01:15:52,873 --> 01:15:55,903
And we live in a world
which honors the servant

1440
01:15:55,903 --> 01:15:57,233
but has forgotten the gift.

1441
01:16:00,863 --> 01:16:02,513
We do need a paradigm shift.

1442
01:16:02,513 --> 01:16:04,883
Because it's not about
little things here and there.

1443
01:16:04,883 --> 01:16:08,903
It's about the whole way we
conceive what a human being is,

1444
01:16:08,903 --> 01:16:12,923
what the world is, and what
our relationship with it is.

1445
01:16:17,793 --> 01:16:23,763
Love is a pure attention to
the existence of the other.

1446
01:16:23,763 --> 01:16:26,463
It's such a simple
thing, but it's so deep.

1447
01:16:26,463 --> 01:16:31,353
And I found it applies to
many, many things in life.

1448
01:16:31,353 --> 01:16:33,543
Really what we're
on this planet to do

1449
01:16:33,543 --> 01:16:37,623
is to give attention
to that other.

1450
01:16:40,163 --> 01:16:42,473
It can be other
people, but it can also

1451
01:16:42,473 --> 01:16:47,303
be what until very recently
was the other that we were all

1452
01:16:47,303 --> 01:16:49,163
surrounded by all
the time, which

1453
01:16:49,163 --> 01:16:53,933
was the natural world,
which is our home, which

1454
01:16:53,933 --> 01:16:59,603
is this completely amazing,
beautiful, staggeringly

1455
01:16:59,603 --> 01:17:02,303
expressive gift.

1456
01:17:02,303 --> 01:17:06,253
[MUSIC PLAYING]