Fact Checking Scott Alexander’s Discussion of Julian Jaynes’s Theory on “Slate Star Codex”

By Marcel Kuijsten

Read by Michael R. Jacobs (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.theungoogleable.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.youtube.com/@VoidDenizen⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠).

In June 2020, the psychiatrist and blogger Scott Alexander wrote a review of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind for his popular “Slate Star Codex” blog. His discussion of Jaynes’s theory contains a number of misconceptions and errors, and I will attempt to clear those up here. While the first three sections of his review are more or less just a summary of Jaynes’s main arguments and some topics he feels are related or supportive, the issues I’d like to address can be found in the fourth and fifth sections of his post.

Read the complete text from this episode here:

https://www.julianjaynes.org/blog/fact-checks/fact-checking-scott-alexander-part2/

Learn more about Julian Jaynes's theory or become a member by visiting the Julian Jaynes Society at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.julianjaynes.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Conscious Interiority Is a Constellation of Processes

But Attention-grabbing Headlines in the Scientific Literature Mistakenly Suggest that Consciousness is an All-purpose Psychological Stuff

By Brian J. McVeigh

Read by Michael R. Jacobs (⁠⁠⁠⁠www.theungoogleable.com⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.youtube.com/@VoidDenizen⁠⁠⁠⁠).

Pretend you’re from another dimension and unfamiliar with cars, planes, trains, and ships. But you quickly notice what they share in common: Motion. You’re interested in discovering exactly how these contraptions work and decide that to understand them you need to investigate motion-ness. So you begin to take them apart, piece by piece, looking for the essence of movement. However, try as you might, you can’t discover the mysterious potency animating the operation of going from point A to point B. But you’re absolutely convinced that motion-ness must exist somewhere in or around anything imbued with the power of mobility.

Read the complete text from this episode here:

https://www.julianjaynes.org/blog/julian-jaynes-theory/conscious-interiority-is-a-constellation-of-processes/

Learn more about Julian Jaynes's theory or become a member by visiting the Julian Jaynes Society at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.julianjaynes.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Conscious Interiority and the Language Trap

Why We Struggle to Explain Consciousness

By Brian J. McVeigh

Read by Michael R. Jacobs (⁠⁠⁠www.theungoogleable.com⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠www.youtube.com/@VoidDenizen⁠⁠⁠).

Cleaning up the mess surrounding the uses of “consciousness” is not an airy, abstruse, or esoteric subject, a topic only for absent-minded academics with their heads in the clouds. This discussion has serious, profound, and practical implications. Neuroscientists employ terminology to delineate the differences between being asleep, in a coma, or in a state of ordinary consciously interiorized mentation. Physicians, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, counselors, and other mental health care providers need to be able to differentiate various forms of cognition to facilitate healing.

Read the complete text from this episode here:

https://www.julianjaynes.org/blog/julian-jaynes-theory/conscious-interiority-and-the-language-trap/

Learn more about Julian Jaynes's theory or become a member by visiting the Julian Jaynes Society at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.julianjaynes.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

A Relay-Race Model of Conscious Interiority

A Cultural Invention, Consciousness Needs to Be Relearned with Each Generation

By Brian J. McVeigh

Read by Michael R. Jacobs (⁠⁠www.theungoogleable.com⁠⁠, ⁠⁠www.youtube.com/@VoidDenizen⁠⁠).

The word “consciousness” usually evokes something neuroanatomical, intimately bound up with perceptual experiences, an evolutionary psychological feature from our very distant past that is inherent to the brain itself. Consciousness for many seems to be a general term for any type of sensory, conceptual, or thinking process. This leads to muddled theorizing.

Read the complete text from this episode here:

https://www.julianjaynes.org/blog/julian-jaynes-theory/a-relay-race-model-of-conscious-interiority/

Learn more about Julian Jaynes's theory or become a member by visiting the Julian Jaynes Society at ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.julianjaynes.org⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Consciousness Is a Cultural Add-on

A Product of History Not Reducible to Neurology, Conscious Interiority Is Like Mathematics

By Brian J. McVeigh

Read by Michael R. Jacobs (⁠www.theungoogleable.com⁠, ⁠www.youtube.com/@VoidDenizen⁠).

When we hear the word “consciousness” many of us, in a knee-jerk manner, associate it with neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, or something physically inborn. We also link it to perceptual or cognitive processes that are non-historical and non-cultural. However, according to Jaynesian psychology, these are all misleading assumptions, since consciousness is not necessary for perception, learning, and reasoning. It is extra-genetic and a product of sociocultural forces and it entered the historical scene relatively recently, about three millennia ago. Indeed, as a culturally-configured form of knowledge, consciousness is closer to mathematics or other domains of learning. Consciousness is a very special form of knowledge, of course, but an array of socially-acquired ideas nevertheless. Let’s consider how mathematics is similar to consciousness.

Read the complete text from this episode here:

https://www.julianjaynes.org/blog/julian-jaynes-theory/consciousness-is-a-cultural-add-on/

Learn more about Julian Jaynes's theory or become a member by visiting the Julian Jaynes Society at ⁠⁠⁠www.julianjaynes.org⁠⁠⁠.

Jaynesian Therapeutics and the Self-healing Mind: Part 2

Lessons from Hallucinations, Hypnosis, and Meditation

By Brian J. McVeigh

Read by Michael R. Jacobs (www.theungoogleable.com, www.youtube.com/@VoidDenizen).

In Part 1 we looked at how something we take for granted — consciousness — is actually an active ingredient that can aid in the repair of the mind for certain mental disorders. In this Part we explore how anomalous psychological experiences hold lessons for how consciousness relates to the self-healing mind. Various manifestations of mentality — ordinary consciousness, hallucinations, hypnosis, meditation — are like a colorful tapestry with different patterns but woven together with the same threads. The challenge is disentangling and isolating the threads so as to understand the psychological processes behind these phenomena, especially since this can help understand the therapeutic benefits of certain mental exercises.

Read the complete text from this episode here:

https://www.julianjaynes.org/blog/julian-jaynes-theory/jaynesian-therapeutics-and-the-self-healing-mind-part-2-of-2/

Learn more about Julian Jaynes's theory or become a member by visiting the Julian Jaynes Society at ⁠⁠www.julianjaynes.org⁠⁠.

Jaynesian Therapeutics and the Self-healing Mind: Part 1

Harnessing the Active Ingredients of Psychotherapy

By Brian J. McVeigh

Read by Michael R. Jacobs (www.theungoogleable.com). His YouTube channel is www.youtube.com/@VoidDenizen.

It is an interesting fact that the success rates for different psychotherapies are about the same. This is why researchers have searched for “common factors” that facilitate the healing process. The goal, then, should be to discover the common “active ingredients” of all therapies, e.g., the personality of the therapist, the “therapeutic alliance.” Could consciousness itself constitute a common factor that can be cultivated in order to repair troubled minds? Could consciousness underlie the effectiveness of the self-healing mind?

Read the complete text from this episode here:

https://www.julianjaynes.org/blog/julian-jaynes-theory/jaynesian-therapeutics-and-the-self-healing-mind-part-1-of-2/

Learn more about Julian Jaynes's theory or become a member by visiting the Julian Jaynes Society at ⁠www.julianjaynes.org⁠.

Appreciating Other Facets of Jaynesian Psychology: Part 2

By Brian J. McVeigh

In Part 1 of “Appreciating Other Facets of Jaynesian Psychology” I began a discussion of aspects of Jaynesian psychology that if appreciated, add depth and perhaps persuasiveness to Jaynes’s arguments. I focused on how understanding Jaynes investigation of how language has constructed conscious interiority. Here I introduce some more facets of Jaynesian psychology. I suggest that given the richness and breadth of Jaynes’s thinking, we need to propose a “Jaynesian intellectual paradigm” that goes beyond mere psychological theorizing.

Read the complete text from this episode here:

https://www.julianjaynes.org/blog/julian-jaynes-theory/appreciating-other-facets-of-jaynesian-psychology-part-2/

Learn more about Julian Jaynes's theory or become a member by visiting the Julian Jaynes Society at www.julianjaynes.org.