Cortina Mauricio, Liotti Giovanni
Attachment and Human Development Center, Washington School of Psychiatry, Washington, DC, USA.
J Am Acad Psychoanal Dyn Psychiatry. 2010 Summer;38(2):291-314. doi: 10.1521/jaap.2010.38.2.291.
We discuss consciousness from evolutionary and developmental perspectives. The expansion of communicative abilities was a necessary step for the emergence of a new type of cooperation based on equality that probably appeared for the first time among nomadic hunter gatherers during the upper Paleolithic era. In turn, this new level of cooperation gave raise to an expanded form of consciousness. From a developmental perspective an expansion of intersubjective abilities and consciousness go together. Three basic levels of intersubjectivity are present in humans. A primary form of intersubjective communication is accompanied by a primary form of consciousness that is not easily accessible for conscious scrutiny. During the second year of human life secondary forms of intersubjectivity expand consciousness from the immediacy of one-to-one interactions, to include a shared understanding of intentions and goals with caregivers. Secondary forms of intersubjectivity give raise to the type of consciousness characterized by preverbal symbols and images--a primordial form of conceptual knowledge. A further step in intersubjective communication uses the meanings and concepts that have emerged earlier in development and transforms them into words. The leap into language allows our species to conceive past, present, and future simultaneously. The cultural transmission of knowledge and social mores depends on these abilities. This further expands the scope of consciousness and creates conditions for self reflection, a type of consciousness that is uniquely human.
我们从进化和发展的角度来探讨意识。交流能力的扩展是一种新型平等合作出现的必要步骤，这种合作可能首次出现在旧石器时代晚期的游牧狩猎采集者之中。反过来，这种新的合作水平催生了一种扩展形式的意识。从发展的角度来看，主体间能力和意识的扩展是同步的。人类存在三种基本的主体间性水平。主体间交流的初级形式伴随着一种意识的初级形式，这种意识形式不易被有意识地审视。在人类生命的第二年，主体间性的次级形式将意识从一对一互动的直接性扩展到包括与照顾者对意图和目标的共同理解。主体间性的次级形式催生了以非言语符号和图像为特征的意识类型——一种概念知识的原始形式。主体间交流的进一步发展利用了在发展早期出现的意义和概念，并将它们转化为语言。向语言的飞跃使我们人类能够同时构想过去、现在和未来。知识和社会习俗的文化传承依赖于这些能力。这进一步扩展了意识的范围，并为自我反思创造了条件，自我反思是一种人类独有的意识类型。
