Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- vestiges-of-bicameral-mentality [2024/04/05 11:55] – brian.m
+++ vestiges-of-bicameral-mentality [2024/04/10 12:54] (current) – jjswikiadmin
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-==== Modern Relevance ====
+==== MODERN RELEVANCE ====
 The implications of Jaynes’s ideas are far-ranging. Besides ancient history and the origins of religion, his theories help us understand neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, neuroplasticity, anomalous psychological behavior (e.g., hypnosis and spirit possession), linguistics, metaphor, philosophy (the mind‒body dualism problem), art and aesthetics, the dynamics of modern politics, counseling, psychotherapy, the interface of psychology with technology, and the future of the ever-changing human psyche.
@@ Line 41: / Line 42: @@
 //Hypotheses about Hypnosis//
-Jaynes’s theory predicts that in the EEG’s of a hypnotized subject, the ratio of brain activity in the right hemisphere would be increased over that of the left (though this is complicated by the fact that it is the left hemisphere that to some extent must understand the operator) (Jaynes, 1990, p. 395). When Jaynes proposed this hypothesis, the research results were conflicting. But he provided some indirect evidence.
+Jaynes’s theory predicts that in the EEG’s of a hypnotized subject, the ratio of brain activity in the right hemisphere would be increased over that of the left (though this is complicated by the fact that it is the left hemisphere that to some extent must understand the operator). When Jaynes proposed this hypothesis, the research results were conflicting. But he provided some indirect evidence.
 First, people who, when answering questions face to face, turn their eyes to the left and are therefore using their right hemisphere more than most others, are much more susceptible to hypnosis. Arguably this means that hypnosis engages the right hemisphere in a special way and that the more easily hypnotized person is the one who “listens to” the right hemisphere more than others.
@@ Line 69: / Line 70: @@
 Despite the commonalities and overlap with everyday behaviors, hypnotism still stands as a singular phenomenon. It has distinct characteristics that resonate profoundly with other vestiges of bicamerality. Moreover, there are significant differences in how special induction procedures make hypnotic trancing easier. Certain impressive behaviors are very difficult to carry out in a normal state of consciousness. “Such feats without rapport with an operator require grotesque efforts of persuasion and massive burdens of concentration” (Jaynes, 1976, pp. 399‒401).
+**Understanding Mental Illness and Hearing Voices**
+Voices hijack our volition, criticizing and berating us. Our boundaries of self dissolve. A normal sense of time disappears. Our personal mental space fades away. We lose track of our actions. We feel manipulated by insidious, overpowering forces. Jaynes contended that this mental disease is an unwelcome return to an earlier mentality, a relapse into bicamerality.
+In ancient Greece a clear linkage was made between what today we call schizophrenia and bicameral mentality or at least its vestiges. Indeed, when insanity is initially mentioned in the conscious period, it is referred to in bicameral terms. Like many other peoples, the ancient Greeks regarded insanity as a boon from the divine. One Greek expression for insanity, paranoia, literally meant having another mind alongside one’s own (para + nous). This describes both bicamerality as well as the hallucinatory voices of schizophrenia.
+Jaynes saw an intimate connection between schizophrenia and bicamerality. The symptoms of the former resonate with bicameral mentality.
+The first symptom is the most striking: Auditory hallucinations. These are almost always present in florid unmedicated schizophrenia. For many sufferers of schizophrenia, hallucinations seem to be a replacement of conscious thoughts.
+Typically, auditory hallucinations are not under the control of the schizophrenic, who can be susceptible to the innocuous hints from the social environment. So just like hypnosis, the prevailing collective cognitive imperative configures schizophrenic symptoms.
+The second symptom is a collection of conditions that relate to the deterioration of consciousness. Specifically, the erosion of the analog “I,” the collapse of mind‒space, and an inability to narratize.
+For Jaynes, schizophrenic hallucinations are vestiges of an earlier mentality. He explained his reasoning:
+• The brain possesses innate "aptic structures" for hallucinations. These structures are imbued with authorization and organized into hierarchies. Many hallucinations are infused with religious sentiment. But if hallucinations lack such religiosity they still nevertheless function as a type of authorization; this means the present-day schizophrenic hallucinations possess the same function as they did for preconscious people. But schizophrenia is only a partial relapse to bicameralism. A schizophrenic individual is still a conscious being and learned subjectivity can never be completely suppressed or erased. A bicameral individual, unlike a profoundly alienated and lost schizophrenic, was a member of a strictly stratified super-spiritualized community who lacked any trace of angst or estrangement. Hallucinations are released from their normal inhibition by the abnormal biochemistry associated with schizophrenia. Jaynes noted the following:
+• The Advantages of Schizophrenia. One advantage of bicamerality is tirelessness, i.e., our analog “I” cannot ruminate or narratize excuses on why we need to take a break. By the same token our physiological selves cannot convince our analog “I” that we need to take a break since the latter does not exist in preconscious individuals. Another advantage is how bicameral individuals (and schizophrenics) are more sensitive to and alert to sensory impressions. They see every tree and never the forest. They cannot narratize down possible paths or conciliate unnecessary associations. This means they are less likely to meander and wander around their mental space, become distracted, and mull over the nuances of their choices.
+No doubt certain genes were selected to undergird bicameral mentality. However, genes do not in any simplistic fashion “cause” any form of mentality and enculturation far outweighs the role of genetics in the emergence of consciousness.
+• Unlike most people, slightly more activity is apparent in the right hemisphere of schizophrenics.
+• After several minutes of sensory deprivation, increased right hemisphere activity in schizophrenia is much more evident. This is the same condition that triggers hallucinations in the nonclinical population.
+• It seems as if schizophrenics “get stuck” on one hemisphere or the other; they cannot shift from one mode of information processing to another as fast as normals. This results in illogical speech and confused behavior compared to most other people, who switch back and forth at a faster rate.
+• Slower switching in schizophrenia seems to have an anatomical basis. Autopsies of schizophrenics revealed that the corpus callosum which connects the two hemispheres is 1 millimeter thicker than in normal brains. This may mean more mutual inhibition of the hemispheres in schizophrenics.
+• Certain dysfunctions of the left temporal cortex typically release the right temporal cortex from normal inhibitory control. In 90% of patients with a lesion on the left temporal lobe (or on both the left and right) that causes temporal lobe epilepsy, the right hemisphere is released from its normal inhibition and these patients develop paranoid schizophrenia with florid hallucinations.