The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

It’s one of my favorite books! I have a first edition lying somewhere around my apartment. Dawkins called it: “either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius.” Janyes’s hypothesis, bicameralism, is thought provoking at its least relevant by challenging our static perceptions of what consciousness actually is. Alongside Feynmann’s autobiographies, this book made me think about not only how language and culture can deeply affect consciousness, but what consciousness actually is in the first place. My…

Undoubtedly the best nerd book title ever. When I first saw it I was struck speechless with envy, knowing that, with it's publication, book titles had peaked and that from then on any new publications' titles would pale in comparison. I once examined the tentative hypothesis that some people lacked consciousness - that their behaviour seemed to be missing certain key components of introspection. So this book caught my interest (and of course because it had a great title). But…