A Medicine More Fit for Humanity - 2024 John P McGovern Lecture, Duke University, USA

We live in an age in which we cede more and more of life to machines, raising questions for the practice of medicine.
- 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

[@HighCountryStudio]

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.

[@sathya999]

It's a system of disease maintenance by de$ign

[@christinacd]

Indeed, modern healthcare systems are now all about protocols

[@natalywithaY]

It is a money making system pairing up with the phood industry. Its all business. If people want to be healthy they need to practice their free will and acquire knowledge and live accordingly. Unfortunately most are asleep at the wheel having delegated responsibility over what turns out to be their own decisions.

[@mandyshanks2327]

Thanks god for McGilchrist and the Sheldrake family of the UK. May there be many more such open souls with brains.

[@Reso-pn7kr]

Everyone has a "brain", the question is: do they have 'mind'. Ever here the expression "mind" over matter? Perhaps we can imagine the bone and flesh as the foundation and structure embodying the substantive spirit and mind ultimately establishing a real life tangible 3d holographic representation of the free-willed-spirit - personification - of eternal life. The 3 part essential trinity being of spirit/body\mind - eternal. The 4th dimension of reality being: the habitat on earth, a planet conceived of the star dust of the heavens above giving birth of diverse abundant life formation - eternal. She is the womb of our flesh, the mother of our soul, as our father is divine genetic seed which fertilized mothers ovary establishing conception of our fetus evolving within the darkness of thy mothers womb- to be birthed into the light of the world - as a hybrid spiritual-being honoring both mother and father-eternal. The: Marital-maternal-Life - Eternal.

[@MJC22.03]

Hooray ! We have a Human at the podium !

[@zacfre69]

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.

[@TheDAT9]

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.

[@briandowney9913]

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!

[@ginalibrizzi5204]

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!

[@danielross7899]

Dr. McGilchrist offers so much profound wisdom and hope for a path forward. Thank you for this presentation.

[@aek12]

Mcgilchrist the most important man of 21st century

[@TennesseeJed]

Iain starts at 6:35

[@nupraptorthementalist3306]

👍

[@cathithomas2888]

thanks!

[@TheProms]

I had the privilege to meet Dr Iain McGilchrist. What a great man he is.

[@L2Lacademy]

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

[@catherinewestover8224]

If there is anyone in this post-modern world at whose feet I would like to sit, it is Dr. Iain McGilchrist. Thank you!

[@katiestanley93]

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

[@mjones2879]

I’m speechless - out of emotion, feelings, perceptions…. I’m so grateful for you being who you are !!!! ❤L CC. R❤

[@D.E.Saccone-no4og]

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

[@cobaltjones]

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.

[@natesmithstine8566]

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.

[@shahlaahy4372]

Thank god for speaking of human matters progress had left behind!

[@annfionamaskell7828]

Preach on, Brother Iain, preach on ... viva

[@BonnieBlueSky]

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!

[@ekoe5484]

thank you, Iaian and all those who put the effort into bringing this lecture to us. Many thanks to you Iaian for ALL the work you are doing to help us of the importance each hemispheres take on reality and why balance is SO important.

[@dasglasperlenspiel10]

I WISH I HAD BEEN PRESENT FOR THIS LECTURE.

[@l3eatalphal3eatalpha]

Metaphysical statement.

[@kartech6938]

@@l3eatalphal3eatalphatrue

[@oliverjamito9902]

What is more soothing to hear? Thank you Pop Lain! Pop don't mind the SON sitteth upon the lowest seat LASTS! Gratitude and Honor! Love you Pop Lain!

[@theobservereffectexplained1102]

Dr. McGilchrist May God bless you for all the time and effort you put into writing and sharing such deep insights and truth about human nature. I learned a lot “Love those who use and abuse you “ “Give the other check “ Even though the left brainers are challenging and destroying the beautiful planet we must find a way to live them so we don’t get to be in riches anger.

[@motherhubbard6468]

Death is either nothing or the next great adventure….

[@nicolesawyer-jm6ir]

The best! Thank you for your work and kind depth of clarity.

[@sumayyabhorat790]

Enlightening... Thank you Dr McGilchrist❤

[@qanishque]

He's a saint❤

[@NorfolkSceptic]

I note that Capitalism and Bureaucrats were maligned, but no mention of Socialism, or Corporatism. Both of these cultures (endemic in the NHS), like to dehumanise interactions, and separate responsibility and control, which leads to the dilution of professionalism. I suppose wealth creation isn't that important, when you have enough yourself, but without it, leisure, time for thinking, is impossible. And how can spirituality be so important, yet any hint of Christianity in the NHS is viewed as alien? The questions, around 1:17:h00 do raise some important issues. Time is money, and it's in short supply when the State confiscates such a large fraction.

[@bb2021]

Norfolk, if I understood you correctly, in other talks he has likened extremes of any kind, eg extreme socialism and capitalism as being very difficult to distinguish from each other. Specifically saying that in the NHS (as an example) it would be possible to get rid of most of the managerial structure and do no real harm.

[@NorfolkSceptic]

@bb2021 He prefers his private practice, and that woman was offended that she was told how much time she had with patients (by the NHS?) and that shows the problem. But what does that have to do with Capitalism? Capitalism is just acknowledgment that capital exists and needs to be managed, preferably by people that know what they are doing, not politicians. So calling it extreme is meaningless, or socialist propaganda. Even Marxist countries have to manage capital. China hasn't been doing that very well, recently, either. The Medical Establishment is living within the NHS, a 1948 socialist construct, the BMA union stopped extra trainees in 2008, and everyone works in their own siloed discipline, protecting the pharmaceutical companies that discourage good diet, etc, to sell their wares. It's the politicians that determine the arrangement, and it's the Left that have pushed for 'No Change', fixed working practices, a lack of anything to motivate improvement from those doing the work. It's all top down, employing large consultancies, and more bureaucracy! And he goes on about more Arts & Humanities education, when we have our disastrous NET Zero policies, driven by Arts and Humanities graduates that don't have a clue about Science or Engineering. Yes, we need some Arts, Humanities and Social Science graduates, probably fewer and better quality, but they need to be taught credible information and have some intelligence. Currently, they are running the country into the ground, with their Left brain driven ideas, thinking that intelligence is a credible substitute for a relevant education and experience. Unfortunately, they have a brain with no idea what Classical Mechanics has to say about Windmills. If they did, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in now. And you don't need to go to university to learn about Arts and the Humanities. The BBC could help here. :)

[@roxynoz8245]

Those thereoctical concepts that you have mentioned are out of place now. What you have, are litteral forms of corruption, where goverment corruptly form mutualism with Capitalists. Both parties gain more money through eachother.

[@lalithgunaratne1620]

Dr. McGilchrist provides wisdom to take on the people in power in cahoots with the corporate world...which is a limited liability inanimate license to act as a human person to influence politicians yet it's only purpose is to make profits ......and the pharma, oil, arms all run our world for their profit ..but most of us sacred people know something is amiss.....we just do not quite realize what it is .so we just carry on with life....

[@mojavewander9308]

I've been hoping for a summation such as this that I can follow. Thank you!

[@PhilGribbon]

48:36 I love Dr Iain's freudian slips "we can't get out of the crisis by the same kind of thinking that got into it…got us into it in the first place" If an art work is an organism as per Aristotle (refd at 10:00), then thought-belief-systems may also be considered 'living'. "Our fragmented life-denying grasping culture is making us sick, sicker than we have ever been." This living thought exhibits a dominance of left-hemispheric fixation - IIIΞ is what is meant:;to flow.

[@magdahoekstra1694]

Just also look at the beautiful interview between the mystic Sadhguru with neuroscientist Dr David Eagleman, that talks about genetic memory and all other types of memory cells have, as well as the medical explanations, clearly they overlap. As well 'attention' and 'devotion' being mentioned and consciousness explained from different viewpoints. It seems to fit very well with this speech of Dr Mc Gilchrist. Very interesting.

[@irinaclaussen7940]

Absolutely loved every word 💙

[@TheGrimStoic]

Always startlingly framework-defining

[@helenperala3459]

Superb!

[@NineInchTyrone]

Let food be thy medicine

[@samloutalbotmusic]

Excellent, as ever

[@raymaharaj3555]

Brilliant ! 👏

[@andydufresne299]

Thank you. Peace.

[@annakarl9989]

THANK YOU 💐💖🤗

[@jeanetteberwick2434]

The left and the right Hemisphere Brillant information to study thankyou ❤❤

[@L2Lacademy]

Excellent

[@SacraTessan]

Yes the utility for what ? The problem with most institutions ..who tend to work against what they where created to serve .. solve

[@MJC22.03]

Brilliant

[@ivoneriquelme3536]

A pessoa pioneira em Permacultura pra mim foi SKYE (da Austrália)! Grata.

[@antoineleedolliole7549]

Badass!

[@DJWESG1]

If only the government released their risk assessments for austerty policies and welfare cuts.. You say they are pointless, but it would have been good to be able to hold them to account with legitimate documentation and real tangible evidence to present to a court. You know how many have 'suffered'.

[@vitomercedes3092]

Congrats

[@NineInchTyrone]

CARNIVORE

[@SacraTessan]

Thank you for this ❣️where can I find the following lecture as was annonsed ..about Art ?

[@loyh5269]

god bless you lain

[@loyh5269]

@@SRCX.ClimateResearch is that even a question?

[@loyh5269]

@@SRCX.ClimateResearch yes

[@loyh5269]

@@SRCX.ClimateResearch look around you.

[@loyh5269]

@@SRCX.ClimateResearch not here to impress you on evidence, and it seems you dont have the mental faculties to go beyond what you think e.g your right hemisphere is weak

[@loyh5269]

@@SRCX.ClimateResearch ok

[@papessa]

Attention is changing the behaviour of the electron- it becomes as a wave or as a particle, isn’t it 😊

[@VenusLover17]

❤❤

[@marksmit8112]

Excellent and profound but as always far too much noise for the lay person such as myself, who like to get to it.

[@dreamervanroom]

Laughiing in the Q&A dont speak like things are a machine then say you are speaking with precision and make up some specific down to a decimal. Oh on re-listen he did say it was a FAKE precision. Right on. Is there indeed a difference in his words: intersubjectivity and subjectivity? "the intersubjective world" Ah, he is talking about the communication between what we see as body parts. And intersubjectivity refers to just that with relation to things outside of ourselves (back and forth communication). Ian your time problem is also a crowdedness problem. The population of humans has increased to an unmanageble amount, and unsustainable in the biosphere. The last question was a magical summation plus indicating further direction of what Dr.McGilchrist was working on saying. He was listening. Thank you both.

[@pauldunn9502]

Pischinger might argue that. CELL has no knowledge but the ECM is the intelligence and responds to the environment

[@sunroom7]

Excellent. The left hemisphere is deluded....100%

[@roxynoz8245]

The Human practice to impose their conceptual maps, and think of it as the 'in-of-itself' reality; causes nearly 2500 years of Western Philosophy to be in need of review. R.I.P to so many lost lives of Philosophers/Scientists who were guided in dealing of nescience. May Embodied Realism have its revoloution!

[@Neal_Daedalus]

1:05:26 remind you of the parable of the Prodigal Son?

[@wehsee912]

🌚☄️❤️💫

[@ESuccessMasters]

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻💕💕💕❤️❤️❤️🌟🌟

[@PRAR1966]

🙂

[@RJ-cs9gz]

Iain starts at 6min 30

[@maryjacobs5920]

Thanks

[@ajaypatra2863]

Life is a far from equilibrium system.

[@theobservereffectexplained1102]

My divine is Jesus Christ and his teachings is all about love. “Forgive them they don’t know what they are doing or saying “ “Love your enemies “ So the left brain culture needs love and compassion. They don’t know what they are missing

[@harrying882]

The only true virtue is courage, with that the rest will follow.

[@user-ok6xp6pj4o]

"attention is a form of love" is that why some shout Attention to soldiers at various military functions ? thank you

[@MusicaAngela]

I’m not sure if you meant this as a joke, but shouting a demand for attention is not a way of eliciting attention. It’s more of a way of saying “pull yourself together and wait for the next instruction.” In other words, a military commander orders his troops to stop thinking and just wait and respond as they have been automatically trained to do so.

[@user-ok6xp6pj4o]

@@MusicaAngela ok, sounds complicated and weird but I guess that's how that works then there, thank you

[@celestialteapot309]

Speaking as someone who has escaped the tyranny of work by "sitting about" for 20 years at the expense of the state l highly reccommend it for right brain and spiritual development (please note, the capitalist class needs unemployment ).

[@merlingeikie]

Dear Sir, We need you to satay alive. Please stop eating insulin raising foods. This will enable you to beat your metabolic syndrome. You can do this. 🍀👑🇦🇺

[@ejenkins4711]

Lux veritas CGJ/CGJP Born 68 again 03 Found the good doctor 04 inside me, All that has happened how comprehend Sterquilinus inveneture My friend 2 the end🍀🦍⌚

[@ejenkins4711]

The professor surely knows the difference between profit and prophet. I could tell we he blessed the lad at the end. T432 truth 🍀🦍⌚

[@mznxbcv12345]

Why is Iain McGilchrist popping up everywhere now? His book was only useful insofar the clinical cases it presented, his entire methodology is flawed otherwiseWhatever original contribution in the book of his is not even worth considering. A nick murray fan.

[@saliksayyar9793]

The white haired guy who came first is really annoying with his voice and attitude .

[@andrewmaher8409]

“Director of bioethics humanities and history of medicine”… Could be totally wrong, but guessing anyone allowed to inhabit that position probably isn’t really interested in McGilcrist’s views, what those views might bring to light about the medical Industry’s (lack of) ethics, and the direction that industry may be forced to take if the greater public fully embrace some of McGilchris’s views.

[@carolineoakshett8520]

​@@andrewmaher8409Ah interesting. Bioethics is a term brought in to disguise something very far from ethical. Something fixed in the left hemisphere.

[@Comodusprimus]

My favourite hobbit.