The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

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Gazzaniga, Michael (1967). "The Split Brain in Man". Scientific American. 217 (2): 24–29. Bibcode: 1967SciAm.217b..24G. doi: 10.1038/scientificamerican0867-24. a b Jaynes, Julian (April 1986). "Consciousness and the Voices of the Mind". Canadian Psychology. 27 (2).

origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral

It is important here to draw attention to the issue of responsibility. The great psychological and social weight of self-agency comes from the fact that one can be held responsible for one's actions. What then of bicameral people and the societies in which they lived? Jaynes does not dwell on this issue, but is unequivocal in his stance, making the rather bold claim that “...early civilizations had a profoundly different mentality from our own, that in fact men and women were not conscious as are we, were not responsible for their actions, and therefore cannot be given the credit or blame for anything that was done over these vast millennia of time” ( Jaynes, 1993, p. 201). Although perfectly consistent with his theory, Jaynes' suggestion that the notion of responsibility was absent from human societies until very recently is rather jarring. If true (and of course, with Jaynes' theory, this is not a given) it would force us to re-write the very narrative of human history. How would ancient civilizations have functioned like this? According to Marcel Kuijsten, Founder and Executive Director of the Julian Jaynes Society, we have to remember that people still communicated with each other – and that these societies were highly hierarchical. Persinger, M.A. (1993). "Vectorial cerebral hemisphericity as differential sources for the sensed presence, mystical experiences and religious conversions". Perceptual and Motor Skills. 76 (3 Part 1): 915–30. doi: 10.2466/pms.1993.76.3.915. PMID 8321608. S2CID 38474305.Jaynes] has one of the clearest and most perspicuous defenses of the top-down approach [to consciousness] that I have ever come across." — Daniel Dennett, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, Tufts University, in Brainchildren

origin of consciousness and beyond - PMC The origin of consciousness and beyond - PMC

According to Jaynes, the shift from god-directed automata to self-determined agents can be seen in certain fundamental narrative differences between The Iliad and The Odyssey. He first points out that our modern concept of the will is entirely absent from The Iliad (the older of the two texts), noting that “there is... no concept of will or word for it, the concept developing curiously late in Greek thought. Thus, Iliadic men have no will of their own and certainly no notion of free will” ( Jaynes, 1993, p. 70). At another point in his book, Jaynes describes the soldiers of the Trojan war as being “...not at all like us. They were noble automatons who knew not what they did” ( Jaynes, 1993, p. 75). Here is the startling claim that up to this very recent point in human history, there was no experience of self-volition. Human will was “outsourced” to the gods. Jaynes, Julian (2000) [1976]. The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind (PDF). Houghton Mifflin. p.221. ISBN 0-618-05707-2.Kuijsten, Marcel (2016). Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind: The Theories of Julian Jaynes. Julian Jaynes Society. ISBN 978-0979074431. Erkwoh, R. (2002). "Command Hallucinations: Who Obeys and Who Resists When?". Psychopathology. 35 (5): 272–279. doi: 10.1159/000067065. PMID 12457018. S2CID 6768239.

Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind Since 1997 Exploring Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind Since 1997

The message "Your bicameral mind / Mind your bicameral" is written on the run-out groove of the single vinyl for the David Bowie song " Boys Keep Swinging" (1979). [39] As explored in the work of neuroscientists Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga in the 1960s and 70s, the two hemispheres of the brain are quite divided and can act independently, almost as if they are two separate individuals. They explored this via the separation of animal brain hemispheres and by studying humans who had undergone a corpus callosotomy to treat severe epilepsy. Via this surgical procedure, the part of the brain known as the corpus callosum, which connects the two hemispheres and allows communication between them, is severed.

Conflict of Interest

In his book, Jaynes examines historical texts and archaeological evidence to support his theory. He places the origin of consciousness around the 2nd millennium BCE and suggests that the transition from the bicameral mind to consciousness was triggered by the breakdown of the bicameral system. The bicameral mind, he explains, was characterized by individuals experiencing auditory hallucinations as commands from gods, guiding their actions. Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion (2006) wrote of The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind: "It is one of those books that is either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius; Nothing in between! Probably the former, but I'm hedging my bets." [21]

Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of Review of “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind has been translated into at least seven foreign languages: [38] An early (1977) reviewer considered Jaynes's hypothesis worthy and offered conditional support, arguing the notion deserves further study. [3] [4] Arthur William Hope Adkins [ de], building on Snell's work, wrote about how ancient Greek civilization developed ego-centered psychology as an adaptation to living in city-states, before which the living in Homeric oikos did not require such integrated thought processes. [36] This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sourcesin this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( September 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)It is mentioned in Richard Dawkins's 2006 work The God Delusion as "one of those books that is either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius, nothing in between! Probably the former, but I'm hedging my bets." According to Jaynes, ancient people in the bicameral state of mind experienced the world in a manner that has some similarities to that of a person with schizophrenia. Rather than making conscious evaluations in novel or unexpected situations, the person hallucinated a voice or "god" giving admonitory advice or commands and obey without question: One was not at all conscious of one's own thought processes per se. Jaynes's hypothesis is offered as a possible explanation of " command hallucinations" that often direct the behavior of those with first rank symptoms of schizophrenia, as well as other voice hearers. [2] Jaynes's evidence [ edit ] Henle, Mary; Jaynes, Julian; Sullivan, John J. Historical conceptions of psychology. Oxford, England: Springer. 1973. Jaynes was born and lived in West Newton, Massachusetts, son of Julian Clifford Jaynes (1854–1922), a Unitarian minister, and Clara Bullard Jaynes (1884–1980). He had an older sister, Helen, and a younger brother, Robert. The family had a summer home in Keppoch, Prince Edward Island, which was a place Jaynes loved, and which gave him a Canadian connection for his entire life. [3] The Origin of Consciousness was financially successful, and has been reprinted several times. It remains in print, with digital and audio editions appearing in 2012 and 2015.