For some time now we have thought of the 2-sides of the brains, now British psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist looks at the evolution of Western Civilization through a neuropsychological prism. In his recent book, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, is re-thinking this the left-brain right-brain concept.

McGilchrist is quick to point out that the old left-brain, right-brain clichés of the 1960s and 1970s were greatly oversimplified. Recent research has shown that both sides of the brain are deeply involved in functions such as reason and emotion. But the dichotomy is still useful, McGilchrist says, and should not be abandoned. Watch what RSA has done here and learn more about self-directed learning skills here.