psychoceramics: Re: psychoceramics-digest V1 #389

[spl @ szechuan.ucsd.edu (Steve Lamont)]

> I've just finished a fascinating very closely related to this subject, the
> late Nicholas Spanos's _Multiple Identities and False Memories: A
> Sociocognitive Perspective_ (Washington, D.C.: American
> Psychological Association, 1996; review coming soon to my web pages). 

Another reference, slightly related to this topic: Julian Janes
(Jains?? -- sorry, I don't have the book in front of me), _The Origin
of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind_.  His
thesis, as I recall (again, I don't have it here with me and I read it
probably 15 or 20 years ago -- but I still see it in bookstores so
it's still in print), is that the Voices of the Gods "heard" by the
ancients were actually caused by misinterpreted communication between
incompletely integrated cerebral hemispheres.

I mentioned this theory once in conversation with some of my collegues
and co-workers here in the Department of Neurosciences, fully
expecting laughed out of the room but, to my surprise, the theory is
given at least some marginal amount of credibility.

Even if you don't buy his theory, the first few chapters where he
explores the concepts of consciousness, self-awareness, and sapience
are worth the time to read.

							spl