ABSTRACT
The defining characteristics of the two conscious mental processes that form the core of human mind and generate the systems of language outlined in the book are described. Reflective representational thought develops in conjunction with the beginnings of a sense of self associated with the idea that there is something to think about. It is characterized by stable representation of emotions and related ideas, and the capacity to introspectively distinguish intrapsychic mental process from external reality and from action. Primordial consciousness is a state of global unity in which internal mind and cosmos, reflective thought and action, time past and present, are not differentiated. It is immediate, concrete, stimulus-bound, and driven by somatic sensation and transient affect experienced in the form of transient imagery. Primordial consciousness has been incorrectly associated with immaturity and with pathology, however those judgments depend on the social context and purpose for which it is used.
