iain mcgilchrisT
Iain is a psychiatrist and philosopher. He currently lives on the Isle of Skye where he is a prolific writer and visiting lecturer.
Iain read English at New Collage, Oxford where he graduated with a 1st class degree in 1975. He was then awarded a Prize Fellowship to All Soul College, Oxford where, from 1975-1982, he taught English literature and studied philosophy and psychology. He then trained in medicine, during which time All Souls awarded him two further fellowships (1984-1991 & 2002-2004). He specialised in psychiatry and worked as a Consultant Psychiatrist at the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley NHS Trust in London. Following his research interests to the USA he worked as a Research Fellow in neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins Hospital Baltimore, USA.
He has published in a wide range of journals and papers including The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, the British Medical Journal, English Historical Review, British Journal of Psychiatry, the Times Literary Supplement, The London Review of Books, The Listener and Modern Language Review. His diverse interests include the relationship between mental illness and creativity, society and history, culture and neuropsychology and brain lateralisation. His latest book, The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World gives a comprehensive view of research into brain hemispheric lateralisation, as well as relating these developments in human psychology to cultural shifts throughout the history of the western world.