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[Evolution, emotion, language and conscience in the postrationalist psychotherapy].
1Dipartimento Scienze e Biotecnologie Medico Chirurgiche, Sapienza Universita di Roma, Italy. depascale@uniroma1.it
Rivista Di Psichiatria
|February 11, 2012
Summary
Evolutionary psychology reveals how emotions, cognitive abilities, language, and consciousness are interconnected. Advanced cognitive skills, including deception and self-awareness, developed alongside emotional refinement and abstract thought.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Philosophy of Mind
Context:
- Examines the intricate relationship between biological evolution and the development of complex human cognition.
- Highlights the foundational role of emotions in shaping cognitive processes and abstract thought.
Purpose:
- To present a constructivistic, post-rationalist cognitive model of psychology and psychopathology.
- To elucidate the interdependencies among evolution, emotion, language, and consciousness.
Summary:
- Emotions, refined during evolution, provide the basis for cognitive abilities, enabling abstract data scaffolding and complex reflexivity.
- The development of language, linked to motor skills, facilitates self-consciousness but also introduces the capacity for deception and self-deception.
- Advanced cognitive development is intrinsically tied to the emergence of self-awareness, the ability to lie, and self-deception.
Impact:
- Offers a novel framework for understanding the origins of human consciousness and psychopathology.
- Suggests that core human cognitive functions, including self-awareness and deception, are products of evolutionary and emotional development.
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