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amadswami's review
5.0
You want to blow anyone's mind? Hand them a copy of this and if the eyes of your reader do not turn into saucer-like drugged pools, consider them lacking in all humanity and hope.
methemuppet's review against another edition
reflective
4.0
tl;dr: Wild hypothesis. Very speculative and somewhat dated, but an amazing read nonetheless.
Jaynes splits the book into three parts, of which the first two are the most interesting:
Jaynes splits the book into three parts, of which the first two are the most interesting:
- on consciousness and the brain
- on the historical evidence
- on remnants of bicamerality in modern times
He especially shines in the second part, discussing old texts, city plans, and other material from multiple civilizations existing before 0 AD.
The publication date of 1976 shows, unfortunately, mostly in the fields of neurology and psychology, which substantiate large parts of his case. But also in other areas, such as the translation of old texts and the results of some archaeological digs, great strides have been made. I do wonder where his choice of evidence would differ were he writing this in 2022.
I like the interdisciplinary approach, though, as well as his writing style. The language is, at times, almost poetic, which makes it a joy to read regardless of its thesis. And even if you don't believe a word of the thesis itself, the strangeness of it might shift your frame, just a little, and let you look, for just a moment, into a world very different from our own.
The publication date of 1976 shows, unfortunately, mostly in the fields of neurology and psychology, which substantiate large parts of his case. But also in other areas, such as the translation of old texts and the results of some archaeological digs, great strides have been made. I do wonder where his choice of evidence would differ were he writing this in 2022.
I like the interdisciplinary approach, though, as well as his writing style. The language is, at times, almost poetic, which makes it a joy to read regardless of its thesis. And even if you don't believe a word of the thesis itself, the strangeness of it might shift your frame, just a little, and let you look, for just a moment, into a world very different from our own.
jckl's review
4.0
clarifying, puts the mind in weird places. inspired me to read the bible. re-framed my outlook on religion.
I starting writing stuff down in the end of book 3:
prose is about, poetry is
“[Religion] always lives at the very heart of culture or subculture, moving out and filling up the unspoken and unrationalized”
p355
game: pick a topic. talk about it for a fall minute. next, sing about it for a full minute. notice the effect
p366
hesiod’s theogony
bicameral poets did not imagine, they experienced
poetry was a divine madness — plato
amos in yahweh
hormetheis theou - constantly given by the god himself
the muses vanished. And conscious men now wrote and crossed out and careted and rewrote their compositions in laborious mimesis of the older divine utterances.
poetry is nostalgia for the bicameral mind. we miss the other, we miss the absolute.
i would love to leave traces
the breakdown of the bicameral mind is the “i” becoming god and man, instantly. adam and eve eating the apple
time is, time was, but time is no more
collective cognitive imperative
no concept of chance
inexorable
hypnosis will fail if the patient is using their analog “i”, or seeing their metaphor ‘me’ being hypnotized
STATE DEPENDENT MEMORY
i write on a blackboard, “i cannot speak english”
basic idea: consciousness is a culturally learned event
read the dialogues
analog “I”, mind space, narration. this is cultural-based, not bio
contradiction: jaynes says women are more susceptible to trancing, being oracles, shamans, etc due to their left and right hemispheres not being as compartmentalized. BUT schizos are mostly men and he proposes that schizos are just bicameral people
temerity
draw a person test!!! EXPERIMENT ON YOURSELF
schizo is erosion of the analog “I”
with loss of “I”, mind-space, and the ability to narratize, behavior is responding to hallucinated directions or continues by habit
echolalia
The skin is the only possible means of keeping different pieces together.
drowning in senses. they see every tree and never the forest
In effect, the schizo is a mind bared to his environment, waiting on gods in a godless world
Religion and science. Both proclaimed to be the only way to divine revelation.
scientific deists
elohim, face to face
augurey - omen
paralogical
ecclesiastical
applied to the world as representative of all the world, facts become superstitious
anxiety = knowledge of our fear
I starting writing stuff down in the end of book 3:
prose is about, poetry is
“[Religion] always lives at the very heart of culture or subculture, moving out and filling up the unspoken and unrationalized”
p355
game: pick a topic. talk about it for a fall minute. next, sing about it for a full minute. notice the effect
p366
hesiod’s theogony
bicameral poets did not imagine, they experienced
poetry was a divine madness — plato
amos in yahweh
hormetheis theou - constantly given by the god himself
the muses vanished. And conscious men now wrote and crossed out and careted and rewrote their compositions in laborious mimesis of the older divine utterances.
poetry is nostalgia for the bicameral mind. we miss the other, we miss the absolute.
i would love to leave traces
the breakdown of the bicameral mind is the “i” becoming god and man, instantly. adam and eve eating the apple
time is, time was, but time is no more
collective cognitive imperative
no concept of chance
inexorable
hypnosis will fail if the patient is using their analog “i”, or seeing their metaphor ‘me’ being hypnotized
STATE DEPENDENT MEMORY
i write on a blackboard, “i cannot speak english”
basic idea: consciousness is a culturally learned event
read the dialogues
analog “I”, mind space, narration. this is cultural-based, not bio
contradiction: jaynes says women are more susceptible to trancing, being oracles, shamans, etc due to their left and right hemispheres not being as compartmentalized. BUT schizos are mostly men and he proposes that schizos are just bicameral people
temerity
draw a person test!!! EXPERIMENT ON YOURSELF
schizo is erosion of the analog “I”
with loss of “I”, mind-space, and the ability to narratize, behavior is responding to hallucinated directions or continues by habit
echolalia
The skin is the only possible means of keeping different pieces together.
drowning in senses. they see every tree and never the forest
In effect, the schizo is a mind bared to his environment, waiting on gods in a godless world
Religion and science. Both proclaimed to be the only way to divine revelation.
scientific deists
elohim, face to face
augurey - omen
paralogical
ecclesiastical
applied to the world as representative of all the world, facts become superstitious
anxiety = knowledge of our fear
annaliu's review
5.0
Fascinating. Jaynes presents a thesis that I still ponder to this day about whether there is a biological basis to consciousness and if so, whether it arises from the brain's right hemisphere's symmetrical Wernicke's and Broca's areas. One of the most provoking books of this century... and could have mass implications if he is right.
skojar's review
5.0
I won't pretend to begin to know how plausible the theory espoused in this book is, but it is compelling, and most certainly fundamentally changed the way that I think about consciousness in general.
valdelane's review
5.0
D.C. Stove quipped, "The weight of original thought [in this book] is so great that it makes me uneasy for the author's well-being: the human mind is not built to support such a burden."
2000ace's review against another edition
5.0
The title may be awkward, but it is descriptive: Jaynes lays out his theory that communication between the left and right spheres of the brain is a relatively recent development, and that in ancient civilizations, man heard voices in his head which he then attributed to the outside world. When this book first came out, it sparked all kinds of controversy. For me, it began an interest in neurophysiology that continues to the present. Brain functioning is fascinating stuff, and Jaynes made a seminal contribution to the field in this lucid, sometimes quirky, work.