Julian Jaynes, the Bicameral Mind, and the Origin of Consciousness
Marcel Kuijsten, interviewed by Henrik Palmgren, in Marcel Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind (Julian Jaynes Society, 2022).
Summary: Marcel Kuijsten interviewed by Henrik Palmgren on Julian Jaynes’s theory.
Excerpt: Henrik Palmgren: All right, good day, and welcome. A warm welcome. If you are a regular listener, you will know that we have brought up the idea about the bicameral mind many times on this program. You have probably heard it in passing by other guests and researchers and you have probably heard the name Julian Jaynes as well. Well, we have invited Marcel Kuijsten on the program today, who is the Founder and Executive Director of the Julian Jaynes Society.
Their website is julianjaynes.org, where you can go to find out more information not only about Julian Jaynes but also about the Society itself, the books and the material that they offer in regards to Julian Jaynes’s research and work. As you might know, he passed away back in 1997 — November 21st to be exact — when he suffered from a fatal stroke. We are going to talk more about Julian Jaynes later, we are obviously going to break down, as it were, the theory of the breakdown of the bicameral mind. But we are also going to talk about the book that Marcel has published titled Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes’s Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited. That will be very interesting to talk about as well, so we have much to go through here. I also want to mention Marcel’s own website, which is marcelkuijsten.com. So with that, welcome Marcel, it’s fantastic to have you aboard today, thank you for coming on the program. …