The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

De: Julian Jaynes

Narrado por: James Patrick Cronin

At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes' still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only 3,000 years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion - and indeed our future.

©1976, 1990 Julian Jaynes (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Great concept!

What made the experience of listening to The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind the most enjoyable?

Hearing "new" ideas about the origin of consciousness, and how the past can help explain current psychological problems.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

Solid delivery

What does James Patrick Cronin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The voice of a god. I must go and make a shrine to him.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

You've never been conscious of your consciousness like this before.

Very thought provoking book!

It's rare that I find a book which really gives me completely new ideas about the world. This is definitely a book that makes you pounder your experience.

Complicated Yet Brilliant

I was very skeptical about the thesis proposed in this book. After reading it, I am utterly impressed by the detailed analysis and evidence presented by Jaynes.

I cannot say that I agree with every assertion, but I credit Jaynes with shedding new light on concepts I have been exploring.

I feel this book will offer so much every time I read it (which will be many I’m sure).

I highly recommend this book.

Bicameral mind

It is clearly an excellent book. The audible edition is even better due to the narrator's charisma. I believe certain things may have changed in the interim for example it may be less right-left hemispheric interaction and more frontal lobe insula involvement. But for the pre fMRI era, it is an astonishing work. The universality of the theory in other cultures is complex - some cultures may still be in bicameral mind - consciousness transition. Even more comparison of Greek - Hebrew mythology is a kind of far stretch hypothesis since medieval Europeans might have been more bicameral minded than Greeks in 100 AC.

Great insights

The book gives us great insights but it is sometimes too dense for an audiobook

Westworld brought me here!

Any additional comments?

This book was highly referenced in the first season of HBO’s Westworld, so, naturally, I had to read it given the fact that that show is probably one of the greatest shows on television of all time...until they jump the shark...please don’t Jump the Shark!
I can’t say I agree with all the concepts presented within this book but I found the book to be quite informative regarding the possible source of that non-corporeal voice-in-our-heads that the ancients called “god.”

Mind blowing!

This opened my eyes to a completely different way of thinking about God. What a perspective shifting book!

Psyche pronounced as see-key 44 times

Nothing to add to the 5-star reviews about this phenomenal essay. However, for a book with the word 'MIND' in the title it's painful to hear the narrator, James Patrick Cronin, pronounce 'psyche' as 'see-key' forty-four (44) times over 26 of its 469 pages. The word psyche is used twice on page 69, once on page 71, once on page 257 and then forty (40) times beginning on page 270 under the section titled 'Psyche' through page 292. On page 291 the word 'psyche' is used nine (9) times. Here it is, read it out loud for yourself as "see-key" - - - "But the 'see-key' here is somewhat the same, a something of a man which leaves the body at death. And what the Hades view of 'see-key' may be is a composite of the Pythagorean teaching with the older view of the buried dead in Greek antiquity. All this curious development of the sixth century B.C. is extremely important for psychology. For with this wrenching of 'see-key' = life over to 'see-key' = soul, there came other changes to balance it as the enormous inner tensions of a lexicon always do. The word soma had meant corpse or deadness, the opposite of 'see-key' as livingness. So now, as 'see-key' becomes soul, so soma remains as its opposite, becoming body. And dualism, the supposed separation of soul and body, has begun. But the matter does not stop there. In Pindar, Heraclitus, and others around 500 B.C., 'see-key' and nous begin to coalesce. It is now the conscious subjective mind-space and its self that is opposed to the material body. Cults spring up about this new wonder-provoking division between 'see-key' and soma. It both excites and seems to explain the new conscious experience, thus reinforcing its very existence. The conscious 'see-key' is imprisoned in the body as in a tomb." - - - It's just atrocious. He mangles the pronunciation of other words - but this is the most prolific sputter that actually has a ruinous and detracting impact. FYI: In the book, the word 'psyche' is italicized every time. Just stunning.

Fascinating exploration of history and the mind

Jargon dense but understandable. Drags in spots. Thorough and fascinating. Worth reading/listening. Not for the deeply religious. Probably over sweeping but credible.

An Intriguing & Research-based Thought Experiment

This essay explores four hypotheses that challenge our historical understanding of human perception and reality.