The God of the Left Hemisphere

'Absolutely fascinating - in fact both revelatory and thrilling.' - Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials, and President of the Blake Society'Blake's thought cries out to be understood in the light of cerebral asymmetry. This is a highly original and stimulating book, the best I have read on one of the greatest of English poets.' - Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World'The book is, in its exhilaratingly wide-ranging scope, reminiscent of Freud's late work - ambitious and meta-theory building. - Nigel Barrow, The Bulletin Book Review (2014), Association of Child Therapists'A fascinating book, which unearths amazing parallels between the poetry of William Blake and modern neuroscience. This book shows that Blake's poetry was even more insightful and prophetic than previously thought. At the same time, the book is a very enlightening examination of the pathology of the human psyche, and the pathological culture it has given rise to, offering urgent suggestions on how a new self - and a new world - may come into being.' - Steve Taylor, author of The Fall: The Insanity of the Ego in Human History and the Dawning of a New Era and Back to Sanity: Healing the Madness of our Minds'I found this book profoundly engaging, through its thesis that both individually and collectively humans in our social systems have privileged left hemisphere functioning (information processing, domination, atomising, rationalising, and mechanising) over more imaginative and intuitive apprehensions of reality, involving creativity and the discovery of meaning. This book promotes a form of learning that stimulates the growth of connections between the two cerebral hemispheres of the brain and allows people greater access to their creative, intellectual and emotional selves.'- Dr. Mannie Sher, Director of the Group Relations Programme and Principal Researcher and Consultant at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, and author of The Dynamics of Change: Tavistock Approaches to Improving Social Systems'This is a book to go on every Romantics reading list - a marvellous exposition of Blake's thought and writing. But it is also a deeply wise book, from which every one can learn something that might change their lives.'- Lucy Newlyn, Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford University, and author of Reading, Writing, and Romanticism: The Anxiety of Reception and William and Dorothy Wordsworth: All in Each Other'Roderick Tweedy's book makes salutary reading and shows why Blake's work is not solely a matter of historical interest but also has an important contribution to make to our contemporary intellectual life as well as our pedagogy.'- Professor Christopher Rowland, Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford, and author of Blake and the Bible'Exhilarating reading' - Steff Oates, Review in The Transactional Analyst (Winter 2013/14)