The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars | 64 ratings

Price: 29.95

Last update: 01-30-2025


About this item

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.


Top reviews from the United States

  • eleanor waterbury
    5.0 out of 5 stars a must read
    Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2011
    I first purchased this book 22 years ago at a library book sale, reread it 11 years ago, and just read my tattered copy again last month. the pages are falling out and covered with my notes ... times three. So, i ordered a fresh copy to reread.. again soon this time, because i think i really get it this time.

    Get what? A glimpse into the mind of my (and your) ancestors. jaynes postulates they 'thought' completely differently than we do and goes on to explain exactly what consciousness is (much of what we see as our consciousness, is automatic, really) and how it has evolved over the period of time we call 'civilization'.

    Once we understand that much of how we act and 'think' isn't really 'conscious' we can start to accept that there might have been a time not that long ago, in our hunter-gatherer time, when we humans accessed our 'conscious' decisions from an intrinsic 'link' within us... an inner voice that explained right action. This was a 'voice' we heard, as schizophrenics still hear. But the 'we' we were, were guided by this voice. We lost this connection as our own conscious mind developed; we were stimulated by increasing stresses to our simple life; environmental catastrophes brought drastic changes to our world; increased encounters with strangers with different lifestyles brought new external thoughts to our community (we needed expanded territory now that we had herds to graze and crops to grow). Our inner voice was no longer adequate to help us cope with stimulating iron age 'future-shock'.

    Jaynes saw man as desperately seeking his safe re-connection with his lost inner voice first thru the psychic priest kings of his time who still had the ability to 'hear' what were considered gods, then on to a more structured hierarchy of priest who no longer heard the voices, but practiced the arts of divination and the sacrifices necessary to continue the connection, still communicating the advice, to religious practioners performing rituals to contiue that connection to that which we knew in our gut was/is there somewhere...[this continues today in modern religions AND science, just with fewer slaughtered lambs].

    If dr jaynes was correct, and he explains his theory in exacting detail, outlining historical references minutely, and the anatomical descriptions of the working of our brain [immensely perceptive for a book written over thirty years ago] then he explains a lot about our sense of loss of a "garden of eden" a perfect harmony of mind body and spirit we long for and feel we can almost touch....

    What can i say? i LOVE this book! will you? are you interested in the history of civilization, myth, religion, philosophy, anthropology, neuroscience, psychology, the nature of man and his connection with the universe? then i suggest giving it a shot... you might just agree with me that this book turns you on to some of the most outstanding insights you have ever experienced. . go ahead. give it a try...
  • Dick Bloom
    5.0 out of 5 stars A seminal work of biological and cultural anthropology with lasting implications for modern thought
    Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2012
    The ancient Sumerians, Hebrews, and Greeks were schizophrenic when they described supernatural phenomena they ascribed to an all-powerful deity; that is, their brain hemispheres functioned independently and without communication with the other, as thoughts and sensations were not exchanged across the brain's corpus callosum--a novel concept among non-psychiatrists in 1976 when the book was published and one that unfortunately is still largely ignored by most educated people. The main differences among these groups were the characteristics of the "god" or "gods" that took the place of the concept of the self for each group. As across centuries Roman culture displaced Greek and Christian displaced Roman, collective group communication across the corpus improved, and the hallucinatory voices receded in volume and insistence, yielding the "one God" or "Heavenly Father" that Jews, Christians, and Muslims favor today. Can a schizophrenia shared by all members of a culture really be called schizophrenia? What impact did the conclusions reached by these tormented and violent people have on modern thinking? Were they revised or accepted? How should be think about these conclusions two thousand years later? These questions are not explored by Jaynes, although they very likely turn up in tributes to the "Breakdown" written twenty years later by Jaynes's anthropology colleagues that I have not yet read. The assertions made by "The Origin of Consciousness" should be explored more widely that they currently are. The book is, furthermore, extremely well researched--to a fault, one should add--and a great read. Highest recommendation.
  • Eugene D. Tarris
    4.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Read
    Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2008
    I was very interested in the discussion of the bi-cameral mind and its relationship to schizophrenia. The development of consciousness in the contemporary mind as a replacement to the bi-cameral mind was quite intriguing. The historical development of mind related matters from the second millenium B.C. to the present time was an interesting side. Julian Jaynes has excellent command of this subject. He has well organized his ideas and developed them. It made an interesting read. Thank you.
  • Dani Ha Indiani
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Origin of consciousness...
    Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2011
    once again, The book arrived quickly and in good shape. I love Julian Jaynes. I read his book twenty years ago and was compelled to read it again. It is as fascinating as it was than. I have departed from Mr. Jaynes interpretation of the role and anatomy of the evolution of consciousness. Whereas Mr.Jaynes focuses on the "divine voices" and looks to schizophrenics, who are able to hallucinate voices, I look to animals and their non-verbal PICTURE THOUGHTS that are linked to feelings.

    I never got a chance to meet Mr. Jaynes but if I did I would say: "thank you Julian for expanding our horizons and for making us question our reality and our origins.
    Deep and critical thinker that you are...we follow in your giant footsteps."
  • lorax
    5.0 out of 5 stars Groundbreaking, thought provoking, could explain everything in the past and predict the future
    Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2013
    Absolutely a great book. It explains everything: religion, culture, language. The parts about the anatomy of the brain are probably obsolete due to improved brain scanning equipment today. But Jaynes hypothesis of how civilization and the way we live affect our thinking is enlightening and instructive. He explains how mankind's consciousness altered with the change from hunting/gathering to agricultural societies. He doesn't cover it in the book but he lays the groundwork in my mind for how the industrial revolution and large cities have changed us in the nineteenth century and raises speculation on how the information age and globalization is affecting our brains now. Definitely a ground breaking work.

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