Difference between revisions 560852785 and 560866541 on enwiki

{{Infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name = The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
| image =
| caption =
| author = [[Julian Jaynes]]
| country = [[United States]]
| language = [[English language|English]]
| genre = [[Psychology]]
(contracted; show full) Jaynes, could be killed.<ref>Jaynes, Julian. (1976) ''The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind''. Pg. 221</ref><ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Zechariah%2013:3-4;&version=31; Zechariah, 13: 2-3]</ref> Leftovers of the bicameral mind today, according to Jaynes, include religion, [[hypnosis]], possession, schizophrenia and the general sense of need for external authority in decision-making.

== Scholarly reception ==
⏎
Jaynes's [[hypothesis]] remains controversial. The primary scientific criticism has been that the conclusions Jaynes drew had no basis in neuropsychiatric fact at that time.<ref>Asaad G, Shapiro B. What about the bicameral mind? Am J Psychiatry 1987;144:696</ref>

[[Richard Dawkins]] discussed Jaynes's theory in his book ''[[The God Delusion]]''. In his chapter on the roots of religion, Dawkins writes: "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."<ref>{{cite book |last= Dawkins |first= Richard | title= The God Delusion |publisher= Houghton Mifflin |year= 2006 |isbn= 1-4303-1230-0 }}</ref>  Others considered Jaynes's hypothesis worthy and offer conditional support, arguing the notion deserves further study.<ref>Keen, Sam, "Julian Jaynes: Portrait of the Psychologist as a Maverick Theorizer," ''[[Psychology Today]]'', November 1977, vol 11, pp. 66-7</ref><ref>Keen, Sam, "The Lost Voices of the Gods (Interview with Julian Jaynes)", ''Psychology Today'', November 1977, vol 11, pp 58-60</ref>

In a 1987 letter to the ''[[American Journal of Psychiatry]]'', Dr. H. Steven Moffic questioned why Jaynes's theory was left out of a discussion on auditory hallucinations by Drs. Assad and Shapiro. In response, Drs. Assad and Shapiro wrote, "…Jaynes' hypothesis makes for interesting reading and stimulates much thought in the receptive reader. It does not, however, adequately explain one of the central mysteries of madness: [[hallucination]]."<ref>{{cite journal | last=Moffic | first=H. Steven | year=1987 | month=May | title=What About the Bicameral Mind? | journal=American Journal of Psychiatry | volume=144 | issue=5}}</ref>

Drs. Asaad and Shapiro's comment that there is no evidence for involvement of the right temporal lobe in auditory hallucination was incorrect even at that time.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Buchsbaum | first=M.S., et al. | year=1982 | title=Cerebral Glucography with Positron Tomography: Use in Normal Subjects and in Patients with Schizophrenia | journal=Archives of General Psychiatry | volume=39:251-259 | pmid=6978119 | last2=Ingvar | first2=DH | last3=Kessler | first3=R | last4=Waters | first4=RN | last5=Cappelletti | first5=J | last6=Van Kammen | first6=DP | last7=King | first7=AC | last8=Johnson | first8=JL | last9=Manning | first9=RG | issue=3 | pages=251–9}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Kuijsten | first=Marcel | year=2009 | title=New Evidence for Jaynes's Neurological Model: A Research Update | journal=The Jaynesian | volume=3:1}}</ref>  A number of more recent studies provide additional evidence to right hemisphere involvement in auditory hallucinations. Recent neuroimaging studies provide new evidence for Jaynes's neurological model, i.e. auditory hallucinations arising in the right temporal-parietal lobe and being transmitted to the left temporal-parietal lobe. This was pointed out by Dr. Robert Olin in ''Lancet''<ref>{{cite journal | last=Olin | first=Robert | year=1999 | month= | title=Auditory Hallucinations and the Bicameral Mind | journal=Lancet | volume=354 | issue=9173| doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(05)75304-6| pages=166 | pmid=10408523}}</ref> and Dr. Leo Sher in the ''Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience'',<ref>{{cite journal | last=Sher | first=Leo | year=2000 | month=May | title=Neuroimaging, Auditory Hallucinations, and the Bicameral Mind | journal=Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience | volume=25 | issue=3 |pages=239–240 |url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1407719/pdf/jpn00086-0025.pdf |pmc=1407719 | pmid=10863883}}</ref> and further discussed in the book ''Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness.''<ref>{{cite book |last= Kuijsten |first= Marcel | title= Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes's Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited |publisher= Julian Jaynes Society |year= 2007 |isbn=0-9790744-0-1 | pages = s. 116–120}}</ref>

The philosopher [[Daniel Dennett]] suggested that Jaynes may have been wrong about some of his supporting arguments, especially the importance he attached to hallucinations, but that these things are not essential to his main thesis.<ref name="Dennett 1986">{{cite journal | last=Dennett | first=Daniel | year=1986 | month= | title=Julian Jaynes's Software Archeology | journal=Canadian Psychology | volume=27 | issue=2}}</ref> He also wrote that:

{{quote|If we are going to use this top-down approach, we are going to have to be bold. We are going to have to be speculative, but there is good and bad speculation, and this is not an unparalleled activity in science. […] Those scientists who have no taste for this sort of speculative enterprise will just have to stay in the trenches and do without it, while the rest of us risk embarrassing mistakes and have a lot of fun. --[[Daniel Dennett]]<ref>Daniel Dennett (1998) "Julian Jaynes’s Software Archeology." In: ''Brainchildren: Essays on Designing Minds''.</ref>}}

[[Gregory Cochran]], a physicist and adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of Utah, wrote: "Genes affecting personality, reproductive strategies, cognition, are all able to change significantly over few-millennia time scales if the environment favors such change — and this includes the new environments we have made for ourselves, things like new ways of making a living and new social structures. ... There is evidence that such change has occurred. ... On first reading, ''Breakdown'' seemed one of the craziest books ever written, but Jaynes may have been on to something."<ref>Edge Foundation (2006). "What Is Your Dangerous Idea?" http://www.edge.org/q2006/q06_4.html</ref>  Author and historian of science [[Morris Berman]] writes, "[Jaynes's] description of this new consciousness is one of the best I have come across."<ref>{{cite book | last=Berman | first=Morris | title=Wandering God: A Study in Nomadic Spirituality |year= 2000 | isbn=0-7914-4442-2 }}</ref> Danish science writer [[Tor Nørretranders]] discusses Jaynes's theory favorably in his book ''The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size.''<ref>{{cite book | last=Nørretranders | first=Tor | title=User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size |year= 1991 | isbn=0-7139-9182-8 }}</ref>

Evidence taken to contradict Jaynes's proposed date of the transition from bicameralism is the [[Epic of Gilgamesh|Gilgamesh Epic]]: although the story of Gilgamesh was recorded centuries before the [[Old Testament]], and though its setting is contemporaneous or earlier than the [[Old Testament]] stories, the Gilgamesh story describes such features as introspection.{{Citation needed|date=June 2008}} Jaynes himself, noting that the most complete version of the Gilgamesh epic dates to post-bicameral times (7th century BC), dismisses these instances of introspection as the result of rewriting and expansion by later conscious scribes, and points to differences between the more recent version of ''Gilgamesh'' and surviving fragments of earlier versions. ("The most interesting comparison is in Tablet X." - detailed in ''The Origin of Consciousness'', 1982 edition, p.&nbsp;252f.) Others, such as science fiction author [[Neal Stephenson]] in ''[[Snow Crash]]'', have since conjectured that heroic epics and myths may be rooted in isolated individuals who became self-aware early and could accordingly outmatch and manipulate their fellows<!-- Not sure this is quite right. I remember Stephenson writing in Snow Crash about the use of algorithms/programs/spells and tablets to control other people, but nothing about internalized gods. -->.

[[Brian J. McVeigh|Brian McVeigh]] maintains that many of the most frequent criticisms of Jaynes' theory are either incorrect or reflect serious misunderstandings of Jaynes' theory, especially Jaynes' more precise definition of consciousness. Jaynes defines consciousness—in the tradition of Locke and Descartes—as "that which is introspectable." Jaynes draws a sharp distinction between consciousness ("introspectable mind-space") and other mental processes such as cognition, learning, and sense and perception—which occur in all animals. He argues that this distinction is frequently not recognized by those offering critiques of Jaynes' theory.<ref>{{cite journal | last=McVeigh | first=Brian | year=2007 | title=Elephants in the Psychology Department: Overcoming Intellectual Barriers to Understanding Julian Jaynes's Theory | journal=Julian Jaynes Society}}</ref>

Philosopher Gary Williams has recently defended Julian Jaynes against Ned Block's criticisms<ref>Block, N. (1981). Review of Julian Jayne's  Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Cognition and Brain Theory, 4, 81-83.</ref> in the journal ''Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Gary |last2= |first2= |year=2010 |title= What is it like to be nonconscious? A defense of Julian Jaynes |journal= Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences |volume= |issue= |pages= |publisher= |doi= |url=http://www.springerlink.com/content/e832238u36211688/ |accessdate= }}</ref>

A collection of Jaynes's essays on bicameralism combined with those of contemporary scholars was published in 2007, in a book titled ''Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes's Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited''.<ref>{{cite book |last= Kuijsten |first= Marcel | title= Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes's Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited |publisher= Julian Jaynes Society |year= 2007 |isbn=0-9790744-0-1}}</ref> Included in this book is new support for Jaynes's theory by Marcel Kuijsten, psychological anthropologist [[Brian J. McVeigh]], psychologists John Limber and Scott Greer, clinical psychologist John Hamilton, philosophers Jan Sleutels and [[David Stove]], and sinologist Michael Carr (see [[Shi (personator)|''shi'' "personator"]]). The book also contains an extensive biography of Julian Jaynes by historian of psychology William Woodward and June Tower, and a Foreword by neuroscientist [[Michael Persinger]].

== Editions ==
''The Origin of Consciousness'' was financially successful, and has been reprinted several times. The book was originally published in 1976 (ISBN 0-395-20729-0) and was nominated for the [[National Book Award]] in 1978.  It has since been reissued (ISBN 0-618-05707-2). A new edition, with an afterword that addressed some criticisms and restated the main themes, was published in the US in 1990. This version was published in the UK by Penguin Books in 1993 (ISBN 0-14-017491-5). It has been translated into Italian, Spanish, German, French, and Persian.

== See also ==
{{Portal box|Mind and Brain|Neuroscience|Psychology}}
* [[Behavioral modernity]]
* [[Dual brain theory]]
* [[Exformation]]
* [[Lateralization of brain function]]
* [[FOXP2]], a gene that is implicated in the development of language skills.
* [[Mythopoeic thought]]
* [[Neurotheology]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.julianjaynes.org Julian Jaynes Society]
* [http://www.erikweijers.nl/pages/translations/psychology/the-origin-of-consciousness.php ''The Origin of consciousness'': Summary, selected quotes and review]

{{Laterality}}

[[Category:1976 books]]
[[Category:English-language books]]
[[Category:Neuroscience books]]
[[Category:Cognitive science literature]]