Consciousness, Language, and Self: Psychoanalytic, Linguistic, and Anthropological Explorations of the Dual Nature of Mind

179 Pages·2018·2.82 MB·English

by  Michael Robbins

‘Michael Robbins develops a new way of looking at language and its dual psychological
and sociological roles, one that emerges from his extensive clinical experience. The new
proposals that he offers are interesting, exciting and novel. I know that I will come back to
his work multiple times to contemplate these original proposals on language, consciousness,
mental health, and psychological development. A welcome addition to the literature on
human language and psychology.’
—Daniel L. Everett, Dean of Arts and Sciences at Bentley University;
formerly Chair of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at
Illinois State University; author of Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes.
‘This is a book of striking originality and of great significance for psychoanalysts, psychi -
atrists, psychologists but also for all those who have sought to understand and articulate the
way in which human beings communicate between themselves. Novelists, writers and
those who lecture and speech makers will profit enormously from reading this book and
absorbing deeply its message. Michael Robbins brings to light that there are two forms of
communication between persons: representational language and primordial consciousness.
To illustrate these two forms of communication I will take an example from my own
experience. In London in the 70s I had an analysis five times a week with a little-known
psychoanalyst. When I first approached him I was severely ill mentally. When the analysis
was over I was a changed person. I was fit and well. That this came about through the
analysis I have no doubt. But, what was it that my analyst communicated that had such a
healing power? It was not his interpretations, that which he articulated in representational
language but an inner spirit of generosity and wisdom which was not articulated in repre -
sentational language but was infused in primordial consciousness. I had known this for
some years but not until reading Michael Robbins’ book was I able to voice it in a form
that made complete sense of my own experience but also held immediate conviction for
me that this form of communication had an importance in daily social life that was relevant
for writers, for literary critics, for speech makers and all who are concerned with how
human messaging occurs in any culture or community.’
—Neville Symington, author, former President of the Australian
Psychoanalytic Society, and recipient of the Sigourney award of
the International Psychoanalytic Association.
‘Michael Robbins goes yet more deeply into his exploration of early mentation, which he
first revealed to us in Experiences of Schizophrenia and The Primordial Mind in Health
and Illness. In Consciousness, Language, and Self he explores the hidden meaning of
language in its normal and pathological forms. Neurophysiology, psycho analysis, infant
research, relational theories and clinical experience are masterfully interwoven to form an
intellectual tour de force that sheds new light on the exploration of the mental processes at
the root of the sense of self. His patients’ essays offerunique empirical access to the mind’s
most intimate and mysterious elements. Robbins’ creative yet rigorous study of language
will guide the reader into the innermost part of the human mind. This book is essential
reading for every analyst interested in primitive mental states and psychosis, all clinicians,
practitioners and students of mental health will be enlightened by this vibrant and profound
contribution.’
—Riccardo Lombardi, author of Formless Infinity, Clinical Explorations
of Matte Blanco and Bion and Body–Mind Dissociation
in Psychoanalysis
Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group
http:/taylorandfrancis.com
Consciousness, Language, and Self
Consciousness, Language, and Self proposes that the human self is innately
bilingual. Conscious mind includes two qualitatively distinct mental processes,
each of which uses the same formal elements of language differently. The
“mother tongue,” the language of primordial consciousness, begins in uteroand
our second language, reflective symbolic thought, begins in infancy.
Michael Robbins describes the respective roles the two conscious mental
processes and their particular use of language play in the course of normal and
pathological development, as well as the role the language of primordial
consciousness plays in adult life in such phenomena as dreaming, infant-caregiver
attachment, creativity, belief systems and their effects on social and political life,
cultural differences, and psychosis. Examples include creative persons, extreme
political figures and psychotic individuals. Five original essays, written by the
author’s current and former patients, describe what they learned about their
aberrant uses of language and their origins.
This book sheds new light on several controversies that have been limited by
the incorrect assumption that reflective representational thought and its language
is the only conscious mental state. These include the debate within linguistics
about whether language is the expression of a hardwired instinct whose identifying
feature is recursion; within psychoanalysis about the nature of conscious and
unconscious mental processes, and within cognitive philosophy about whether
language and thought are isomorphic.
Consciousness, Language, and Self will be of great value to psychoanalysts, as
well as students and scholars of linguistics, cognitive philosophy and cultural
anthropology.
Michael Robbins is a psychoanalyst and was formerly professor of clinical
psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the University of California San
Francisco. He is a member of the American and International Psychoanalytic
Assoc iat ions. His previous books include Experiences of Schizophrenia,Conceiving
of Personality,and The Primordial Mind in Health and Illness: A Cross-Cultural
Perspective.
Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group
http:/taylorandfrancis.com
Consciousness, Language,
and Self
Psychoanalytic, Linguistic, and
Anthropological Explorations of
the Dual Nature of Mind
Michael Robbins
ROUTLEDGE RTayolour &t lFerandcigs Geroup
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Michael Robbins
The right of Michael Robbins to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification
and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-48763-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-48764-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-03962-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman and Gill Sans
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Preface ix
Introduction: The lay of the land 1
1 Language and the sense of self 5
2 Two conscious mental processes and their languages 11
3 Theoretical background of the problem of mental process
and consciousness 15
4 Fundamental manifestations of primordial consciousness:
dreaming and the languages of mother-infant bonding 25
5 The relation of mental process and language: the controversy
within linguistics 29
6 The relationship of language to thought and the sense of self 33
7 Belief systems and other everyday phenomenology of
primordial consciousness and its language 37
8 Primordial consciousness, language, and cultural differences 47
9 Emergence of the bilingual sense of self during the
attachment phase 53
10 What characterizes language aberration? 61
viii Contents
11 Language aberration in relation to pathology of early
attachment 69
12 Clinical methodology and data 77
Patient essays
13 Caroline: Schizophrenese 83
14 Jane 101
15 Charles 111
16 Lisabeth 119
17 Jacob 135
18 Our languages and our selves: discussion and conclusion 149
References 155
Index 163
Acknowledgements
An author of a book aspires to teach. In order to be a teacher one must have
something to teach, therefore one must first and foremost be a student and learner.
The kind of learning to which I refer cannot be accomplished by sitting in an
ordinary classroom. It requires personal experience.
My intellectual odyssey that eventuated in the ideas I present in the pages to
come is outlined in the Preface. Much of what informs the book has been learned
from sitting in a different kind of classroom: one taught by my patients, on the
subject of how mind works. While they must remain anonymous for reasons of
confidentiality I want to express gratitude to the current and former patients who
have shared what they learned about themselves and their language in the five
essays that illustrate the book.
I would like to thank Mark Poster, MD, for reading the first iteration of the
book, in its early incarnation as a paper that soon outgrew acceptable page limits.
I am especially grateful to Arnold Wyse, MD, and Myrna Wyse, MSW, for their
careful reading and critical comments.
Most of all I want to express gratitude to Karen Sheingold, Ph.D, who read the
book in parts and in its entirely more than once, and whose continuing constructive
dissatisfaction motivated me to rethink, clarify and improve what I was trying
to say.