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From: citrin@ucbvax.UUCP (Wayne Citrin)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: Need pointer to book
Message-ID: <1214@ucbvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 29-Jun-84 10:33:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.1214
Posted: Fri Jun 29 10:33:34 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 1-Jul-84 06:32:22 EDT
References: <1170@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Organization: U.C. Berkeley
Lines: 22

> Can someone tell me the title, etc. of a book?

> The book came out about 1976. The author contends that man only recently
> became aware of his own existance. He uses the writings of Homer, and
> the demise of the Incas or Aztecs at the hands of the Spanish, to
> support his thesis.
 
The book is "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral
Mind" by Julian Jaynes.  Despite the forbidding title, it's a very
readable well-written book.  The author's thesis is that consciousness is
a relatively recent phenomenon and that before about 3000 years ago
it generally didn't exist but rather man took commands from disembodied
voices which originated in the right hemisphere of the brain, which were
the origin of gods.  He claims
that cultural influences forced a new reorganization of the brain which
resulted in consciousness.  He uses historical and archaeological sources to
support his arguments as well as evidence from psychology and physiology.
Sometimes the arguments are kind of weak, but they are always thought
provoking.

Wayne Citrin
(ucbvax!citrin)