“I began this book with a pretty firm prejudice,” says Robert Ornstein of his survey of the two halves of the human brain. “I believed that after two decades of research we’d find … that there might be little to distinguish the two sides.” Instead, he concluded that “the division of the mind is profound,” with deep roots in evolution, embryonic development, and society. It is profound, but not simplistic: Ornstein shows how the right hemisphere is neither a chimpanzeelike moron nor a mystical genius. It provides the context, the big picture, while the left hemisphere keeps track of the details. Doris Lessing says, “I have always admired Robert Ornstein’s ability to explain difficult scientific ideas to ordinary people”; Paul Ehrlich calls The Right Mind “the most innovative, fascinating work yet to appear on the role of the two hemispheres of the brain.”

The author of 25 books, including the best-selling The Psychology of Consciousness, Ornstein here sums up what we know about the brain today.