In The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, psychiatrist and philosopher Dr. Iain McGilchrist uses a fable to illustrate his central thesis about the human brain’s two hemispheres.
In the fable, a wise Master governs a domain with the help of a trusted Emissary. The Master sees the big picture and acts with wisdom and humility. The Emissary is clever and skilled, but narrower in perspective. Over time, the Emissary comes to believe he knows better than the Master. He gradually takes control and eventually locks the Master away, only to lead the domain into decline because of his limited understanding.
McGilchrist uses this story as a metaphor for the left and right hemispheres of the brain:
- The right hemisphere is the Master: holistic, context-aware, and grounded in lived experience. It sees relationships, meaning, and the “big picture.”
- The left hemisphere is the Emissary: analytical, detail-oriented, and abstract. It excels at manipulation, categorization, and control but lacks depth and broader insight.
McGilchrist argues that modern Western culture has increasingly empowered the “Emissary”—the left hemisphere—at the expense of the right. This imbalance, he contends, has led to a society that is more mechanistic, fragmented, and disconnected from meaning.
This metaphor has been a powerful guide for my journey. I have a gift for structure, leaning towards the left hemisphere of the brain. It has been an incredible strength, and yet, as I have come to learn more about the hemispheres of the brain, I’ve realized how overpowering my left hemisphere can be. My love of structure can limit my thinking and my ability to connect with the world around me. As I’ve built this awareness, I have consciously worked to engage my right hemisphere and unwind areas where my left hemisphere is no longer adding value (such as my overindexing on metrics and data).
My walkabout did wonders to liberate my Master and reduce the influence of my Emissary. It was at times very deliberate and at times subconscious. As the months unfolded, I found myself deeply connected to nature. I was comfortable not knowing where I’d be in a month’s time. My daily metrics spreadsheet had whittled itself down to only a single metric. When the automation that was pulling my running data from Strava into Google Sheets broke, and I could no longer see my miles run in my spreadsheet, I didn’t try very hard to fix it. I hid the column and stopped paying attention to the metric. A few years ago, I would have obsessed over this problem until the automation was working again.
I had liberated the Master while retaining all the best strengths of the Emissary. I had integrated the two hemispheres of my brain. Or so I thought.
The other night, I was speaking to a friend and she told me about the work of Steven Kotler. Kotler is an expert on flow, a concept first researched by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who defined it as a state of optimal experience where people feel and perform their best. Csikszentmihalyi found that flow occurs when a person is fully absorbed in a challenging activity that matches their skills, leading to deep focus, a loss of self-awareness, and a sense of timelessness. Kotler has built upon this concept by studying the neuroscience behind flow and articulating a framework that allows us to more easily access flow.
This should have been right up my alley. For most of my life, I would have dove headfirst into the discussion and immediately picked up his books to learn how to maximize flow for myself and my clients.
Instead, I had a visceral reaction. I told her I was revulsed, not sure if that was even a word (it is). I didn’t object to his work or what it revealed, but on a personal level, I didn’t want to fall into the trap of relying on structures and frameworks when I feel my life is naturally in a state of flow most of the time. We had a lengthy conversation, not about the framework itself, but rather a psychoanalysis of my reaction to it. I realized that I would likely love Kotler’s work as much as I loved my BEabove Leadership coaching program, because both focused on applied neuroscience to better ourselves as humans.
At the end of our conversation, I did genuinely want to learn more about Kotler’s work. However, I still held this strong wariness to ensure that learning his techniques didn’t screw up this good thing I had going, living my life in flow organically without having to rely on structure to get there.
The next morning, when I woke, I felt like a completely different human.
A switch had been flipped. Structure, in support of Mastery, reappeared. I had clarity about what I wanted to change in my diet. I felt a shift in my relationship with alcohol. I knew all the metrics that needed a place, whether they were tracked in a spreadsheet or simply brought back into the forefront of my awareness. And I felt wonderful.
Athlete Josh had returned, and the rest of the Council never realized he had gone away.
The Master, once released from his imprisonment, quietly managed to lock the Emissary away. This was not integration of the two hemispheres. The pendulum had swung from one side to the other.
The Emissary hasn’t returned angry. He understands very well how he treated the Master all those years, and a little retribution is understandable. But the Master and the Emissary now appreciate how they complement each other. They recognize it is time to truly integrate, dancing seamlessly between the strengths of structure and the gifts of freedom as the situation warrants.
Putting It Into Practice
One of my favorite coaching tools is to explore both hemispheres of the brain with a client to help them understand when they are leaning to the left hemisphere and when they lean to the right. The exploration includes how they show up when they are ineffective, as well as when they are effective. They then develop strategies to help integrate the two more effectively.
Pay attention to the times you rely on structure, detail, and focused thinking, along with the times you are thinking more holistically and empathically.
When can a shift help you show up more effectively?
Walkabout Corner
I’ve been in Santa Fe for six weeks now, housesitting and playing Foster Dad to five cats. It has been a magical experience. I had a strong sense that Santa Fe was my future home, and three months of housesitting would give me ample time to explore that intuition in a practical way.
A few weeks ago, I met with my financial planner. As I discussed the possibility of settling down somewhere, he told me, “Unless you know for certain you are going to live there for seven years or more, we recommend you rent right now, not buy.” With that simple statement, any hesitation about Santa Fe melted away. Santa Fe is now my home, at least through the Summer of 2026. That’s a story for another day.
I am an executive coach and life coach with software executive roots in higher education and EdTech. I coach because I love to help others accelerate their growth as leaders and humans. I frequently write about #management, #leadership, #coaching, #neuroscience, and #arete. For an AI-powered search of the blog archives, please visit The Aretist.
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