The Julian Jaynes Collection

$24.95

Biography and rare articles, lectures, interviews, and discussion.
Edited by Marcel Kuijsten

SKU: JJS002 Category:

Description

Softcover Edition

The Julian Jaynes Collection, now expanded to include a new, previously unpublished 30-page radio interview with Julian Jaynes!

Princeton University psychologist Julian Jaynes’s revolutionary theory on the origin of consciousness or the “modern mind” remains as relevant and thought-provoking as when it was first proposed. Supported by recent discoveries in neuroscience, Jaynes’s ideas force us to rethink conventional views of human history and psychology, and have profound implications for many aspects of modern life. Included in this volume are rare and never before seen articles, lectures, interviews, and in-depth discussions that both clear up misconceptions as well as extend Jaynes’s theory into new areas such as the nature of the self, dreams, emotions, art, music, therapy, and the consequences and future of consciousness.

A must read for anyone seriously interested in Julian Jaynes’s theory, the Julian Jaynes Collection includes:

• Discussion of the life of Julian Jaynes.

• All of Jaynes’s relevant articles and lectures for the first time gathered together in one volume.

• Previously unpublished lectures by Julian Jaynes, including “The Dream of Agamemnon,” which extends his theory to dreams and the discovery of time, and “Imagination and the Dance of the Self,” discussing the nature of the self, emotions, and the consequences of consciousness.

• Rare and previously unpublished radio and in-person interviews and in-depth question and answer sessions with Julian Jaynes discussing many aspects of his theory, including: the nature of consciousness, dreams, consciousness in children, cognition in animals, the discovery of time, the nature of the self, the mentality of tribes, emotions, art, music, poetry, prophecy, mental illness, therapy, the consequences and future of consciousness, brain hemisphere differences, vestiges of the bicameral mind, and much more. In these interviews and discussions, Jaynes addresses nearly every question one might have about his theory. This is the closest one can come to having a personal conversation with Julian Jaynes.

• A 22-page Introduction by Marcel Kuijsten discussing Jaynes’s influence and the latest new evidence for his theory.

* * *

From the back cover of The Julian Jaynes Collection:

“Julian Jaynes’s theories for the nature of self-awareness, introspection, and consciousness have replaced the assumption of their almost ethereal uniqueness with explanations that could initiate the next change in paradigm for human thought.”
— Michael Persinger, in Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness

“… A theory that could alter our view of consciousness, revise our conception of the history of mankind, and lay bare the human dilemma in all its existential wonder.” — James E. Morriss, in ETC: A Review of General Semantics

“Some of Jaynes’s original ideas may be the most important of our generation.” — Ernest Rossi, in Psychological Perspectives

“Neuroimaging techniques of today have illuminated and confirmed the importance of Jaynes’s hypothesis.” — Robert Olin in Lancet

“… One of the clearest and most perspicuous defenses of the top-down approach [to consciousness] that I have ever come across.” — Daniel Dennett, in Brainchildren

 

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Customer Reviews

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M
Michael Heil
A fan

I’m have been on a 20 plus year search to determine why there seems to be an inability for the left and right to communicate. Brain physiology seemed to me to be at the root cause of the disconnect. Top/down, right brain/ left brain data analysis and assemblage seemed to be of vital significance in how we, left and right, assess the world. Jaynes saw a bicameral mindset active, prior to full consciousness, as an approach that the ancients used to move through life “effectively”. A right brain emphasis.
I had come to the conclusion, before I heard of Jaynes, that present day society was moving in a right brained direction, emphasizing quick, command oriented, collective solutions to life issues. Jaynes tells us, from a historical perspective, that this is where we started from.
This was extremely helpful to me because his definition of consciousness clarified just what is missing, what is being lost, in contemporary thought: Careful, contextual, deliberate, interiorised thought that can only happen in the left brain.
To summarize this rant, we are returning, circling back, to an approach of thought used in a prior time, but instead of gods we are using political entities to drive our belief systems.
This is just of course my humble opinion. Based on lots of real world research. Jaynes has supplied for me a vital piece of the puzzle. I respect his ideas immensely.
I look forward, Marcel, to getting a copy of the new release that you are planing.
Thanks for listening.
Mike Heil.

R
Robert Stuckey

The Julian Jaynes Collection

E
EE Professor
Finally

I have been waiting for this to be released electronically. One must proceed with caution when approaching Jaynes. Basically, Nietzsche declared that god is dead and then Jaynes buried him. Anyone who reads Jaynes and then continues to doubt the origin of religion is just a fool. All is explained and if anything leads you to the Kierkegaardian abyss it will be Jaynes. So refreshing and enlightening. Not for the weak.

J
Jairon Guerrero
Five Stars

Thank you :-)

F
Frances J. Powell
 As a follow up to my first acquaintance with Julian ...

As a follow up to my first acquaintance with Julian Jaynes' theory of consciousness in his "The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind," it could not be bettered. Jaynes' work deserves a wider readership and Marcel Kuijsten is making a very important contribution to the dissemination of a theory that must eventually prove to be just as significant as Darwin's.