Quotes from book
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
Julian Jaynes

At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand 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.

“Conscious mind is a spatial analog of the world and mental acts are analogs of bodily acts. Consciousness operates only on objectively observable things. Or, to say it another way with echoes of John Locke, there is nothing in consciousness that is not an analog of something that was in behavior first.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book I, Chapter 2, p. 66
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“We are greatly in need of specific research in this area of schizophrenic experience to help us understand Mesolithic man.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book I, Chapter 6, p. 137
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“The changes in the Catholic Church since Vatican II can certainly be scanned in terms of this long retreat from the sacred which has followed the inception of consciousness into the human species.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book III, Chapter 6, p. 439
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“Idolatry is still a socially cohesive force - its original function.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book III, Chapter 1, p. 337
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“The king dead is a living god.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book I, Chapter 6, p. 143 ( See also: Rene Girard, and James George Frazer)
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“Memory is the medium of the must-have-been.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book I, Chapter 1, p. 30
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“These esoteric poses of philosophy and even the paper theories of behaviorists are mere subterfuges to avoid the material we are talking about.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Introduction, p. 16
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“Consciousness is a much smaller part of our mental life than we are conscious of, because we cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book I, Chapter 1, p. 23
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“It is by metaphor that language grows.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book I, Chapter 2, p. 49
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“Civilization is the art of living in towns of such size that everyone does not know everyone else.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book II, Chapter 1, p. 149
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“Poetry, from describing external events objectively, is becoming subjectified into a poetry of personal conscious expression.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book II, Chapter 5, p. 274
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“The mind is still haunted with its old unconscious ways; it broods on lost authorities; and the yearning, the deep and hollowing yearning for divine volition and service is with us still.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book II, Chapter 6, p. 313
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“Every god is a jealous god after the breakdown of the bicameral mind.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book III, Chapter 1, p. 336
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“If we would understand the Scientific Revolution correctly, we should always remember that its most powerful impetus was the unremitting search for hidden divinity. As such, it is a direct descendant of the breakdown of the bicameral mind.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book III, Chapter 6, p. 435
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“This breakdown in the bicameral mind in what is called the Intermediate Period is reminiscent at least of those periodic breakdowns of Mayan civilizations when all authority suddenly collapsed, and the population melted back into tribal living in the jungles.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book II, Chapter 2, p. 197
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“We know too much to command ourselves very far.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book III, Chapter 4, p. 402
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“The language of men was involved with only one hemisphere in order to leave the other free for the language of the gods.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book I, Chapter 5, p. 103-104
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“The vestiges of the bicameral mind do not exist in any empty psychological space.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book III, Chapter 2, p. 355
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“Indeed, it is sometimes almost as if the problem had to be forgotten to be solved.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book I, Chapter 1, p. 44
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“The very reason we need logic at all is because most reasoning is not conscious at all.”

Julian Jaynes book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Book I, Chapter 1, p. 41
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

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