The Bicameral Mind

Positive Psychology Founder: How To Stop Your Negative Thoughts - Martin Seligman - #1167

Modern Wisdom, 24 October 2026. The book comes up at 57 min 31 sec in.

Martin Seligman cites Julian Jaynes's The Bicameral Mind while answering a question about how humans experienced reality differently in the past. Seligman describes Jaynes's argument that consciousness did not exist until the Bronze Age, and that the shift in Homer from Achilles as a puppet of the gods to the cunning Odysseus marks a pivotal change in human self-conception—supporting Seligman's broader thesis about the historical emergence of human agency.

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