A Medicine More Fit for Humanity - 2024 John P McGovern Lecture, Duke University, USA
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Published 2024-05-07
- What is the calling of medicine?
- Is it not to heal human beings?
But what does it mean to heal?
- Is a human being just a body?
- Is the body just a machine?
- Is a doctor just a mechanic?
- Can machines substitute for human skill?
- Can they erode human skill?
- How should we think of death?
- What, after all, is a good life?
It’s unlikely we would all agree on the answers to these questions, but they do all need to be asked. And understanding the role played by lateralization in brain function may guide us towards what are at least better answers to these pressing questions.
Iain McGilchrist is a former Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, an associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Consultant Emeritus of the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital, London, a former research Fellow in Neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, Baltimore, and a former Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Stellenbosch.
Dr. McGilchrist is the author of The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. His most recent book is 'The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World'. He now lives on the Isle of Skye, off the coast of North West Scotland, where he continues to write, and lecture worldwide.
To purchase The Matter with Things
Hardback internationally Amazon.com/
Hardback UK only ChannelMcGilchrist.com/ , Amazon.co.uk/ and other booksellers nationwide
Kindle on www.amazon.co.uk/ and www.amazon.com/
All Comments (21)
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Thank you. I have been in health care for nearly 50 years. This message is beyond needed. We ( professionals and patients) are desperate for real, human to human relationships in the midst of a bureaucratic nightmare called a “ health care system “ when, in truth, it is none of those things…not about health, not about caring, and not a system.
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Thanks god for McGilchrist and the Sheldrake family of the UK. May there be many more such open souls with brains.
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Hooray ! We have a Human at the podium !
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We all understand that we have allowed ourselves to led down the wrong path, but still follow it. We need more people like Ian to say stop, and turn around.
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Thank you, Dr. McGilchrist. My life experience was quite similar to that described by the last audience member in the video. Your work saved my life, and I can think and articulate clearly enough to help loved ones that I once struggled to understand and connect with. My psychiatrist seems deeply interested in your work after seeing the sudden, profound changes in my attitude and overall wellbeing. I am about to graduate and begin a practice of my own, and your work is one of the few things that gave me hope and kept me working towards this goal. Thank you so much.
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Dr. McGilchrist and his work is what our world needs to hear and learn right now! My life has been truly enhanced by reading and listening to him over the last couple years! Thank you, Dr. Iain McGilchrist!
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Ian's talks have given me the framework that has reconciled several observations about major world issues that have been troubling me for decades. Thank you
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Thank you so much for sharing this. My soul is soothed to hear others who understand. May all of humanity stand up and pay attention!
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Iain starts at 6:35
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Mcgilchrist the most important man of 21st century
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I had the privilege to meet Dr Iain McGilchrist. What a great man he is.
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Dr. McGilchrist offers so much profound wisdom and hope for a path forward. Thank you for this presentation.
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I’m speechless - out of emotion, feelings, perceptions…. I’m so grateful for you being who you are !!!! ❤L CC. R❤
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I had a temporal lobe problem on the left side following a traumatic episode and my whole life changed. The energy I saw changed my life. Thank you for giving substance to my experience I am in awe
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Preach on, Brother Iain, preach on ... viva
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Its a huge problem that people arent putting you infront of young people, whom doubtlessly need to hear and feel your message most. Hopefully, those type of engagement come your way more often. The lad from Footnotes2Plato, whose name i sm forgetting, is a wonderful example of that generation - i must say. Peace be with You
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I really enjoy Iain's work. The narrowing of attention is very interesting and something I began to notice at some point in my life. I grew up spending a lot of time on the computer which I believe played a part in a narrowing of my attention. About 10-15 years ago started getting into my body a lot. When doing hand stands and heavy repetition work loads exercising, it is interesting how much more accessible these things are when you allow your attention to unnarrow. This unnarrowing of the attention also rings true for a lot of other things I put myself towards in my life. Thank you Iain your work has become a very important force in my journey of becoming in this life.
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Thank god for speaking of human matters progress had left behind!
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Pure delight!! Iain has become an excellent story teller. This is complex stuff but with wisdom and patience and concise everyday language he found me. And I can hear his message. And it is awesome! Deep gratitude for Dr. Iain McGilchrist!
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Dr. McGilchrist's writings crystalize what I've always sensed. That American culture is impoverished in the context of the transcendental. America is a mundane business/baby culture of mere survival. This creates a vacuum of meaninglessness that gadgets will never fill. My right brain is dying inside the hamster cage of the literal mind.
