Critique 3 – Schizophrenia/Hearing Voices Part 1
Critique: “As to schizophrenia and the like, normal human consciousness is a phenomenon of such subtle complexity that it’s a wonder we can sustain it so stably through life, and easy to envision how it can be disrupted or go on the fritz, akin to a computer program getting corrupted. That doesn’t tell us the program evolved from a state of primordial corruptedness. Schizophrenia and hypnosis are both special mental states considerably removed from normal functioning. While it’s true that normal minds can hold delusions (as in religious beliefs), mass pervasive hallucination simply is not part of human experience. Likewise, though many believe God in some way directs their lives, that’s a far cry from being the veritable puppets of gods that Jaynesian bicamerals would have considered themselves.”
Response: Here Robinson articulates an outdated view of the auditory hallucinations commonly associated with schizophrenia – as the result of the normal brain going haywire. The discovery over the past three decades that auditory hallucinations are far more prevalent than was previously known, documented in a wide variety of populations and circumstances, and found on a spectrum throughout society (and not just in the mentally ill) no longer supports this view. Robinson appears to be completely unfamiliar with the past several decades of research on auditory hallucinations. For the relevant studies, please see my chapter in Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness; all of the books by Marius Romme & Sandra Escher; John Watkins, Hearing Voices: A Common Human Experience; articles by Dirk Corstens; the Hearing Voices Network; and the articles on auditory hallucinations listed in the Supporting Research section of this website.
The fact that auditory hallucinations are now known to be widespread supports Jaynes’s theory that they previously served a functional role. Robinson also seems unfamiliar with the pervasive role that the gods played in the daily lives of ancient man. For example, all of the major decisions in ancient Mesopotamia were made by the gods. For more on this, see Frankfort Kingship and the Gods, Frankfort, Wilson, Jacobsen, et al. The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man, Bottero, Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia, and the selected quotes from these books in the previous response. The evidence Jaynes describes suggests that people did not attribute bicameral hallucinations to themselves. Modern voice hearers, although they have learned consciousness and developed a self, also frequently do not attribute their voices to themselves. This is thought to be because the voices are associated with the language areas in the right or non-dominant temporal lobe, rather than the left. For more on the experience of hearing voices, see Stevens and Graham When Self Consciousness Breaks: Alien Voices and Inserted Thoughts.
Learn about about Julian Jaynes’s theory by reading our latest book, Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind: Interviews with Leading Thinkers on Julian Jaynes’s Theory.