Author: Hubbard, L. R.
Book title: Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health
Publication date: 1950
Edition: 2007
Location: Los Angeles, California
Publisher: Bridge Publications, Inc.
Description: Hubbard discusses "audio-semantic," "video-semantic" and "tactile-semantic" features of what he calls the analytical mind, and refers to Korzybski in discussing the so-called reactive mind and how it thinks in "identities."
Everything in this bank is correct insofar as the single action of perception is concerned. There may be organic errors in the organs of perception, such as blindness or deafness (when physical, not aberrational), which would leave blanks in the banks; and there may be organic impairment, such as partial organic deafness, which would leave partial blanks. But these things are not errors in the standard memory banks; they are simply absence of data. Like the computer, the standard memory banks are perfect, recording faithfully and reliably.
Now part of the standard banks is audio-semantic, which is to say the recordings of words heard. And part of the banks is visio-semantic, which is to say; the recordings of words read. These are special parts of the sound and sight files. A blind man who has to read with his fingers develops a tactile-semantic file. The content of the speech files is exactly as heard without alteration. (p. 58)
The reactive mind bank is composed exclusively of these engrams. The reactive mind thinks exclusively with these engrams. And it “thinks” with them in a way which would make Korzybski swear, for it thinks in terms of full identification, which is to say identities, one thing identical to another. (p. 77)
Korzybski: Alfred Korzybski (1879-1950), Polish-American scholar and founder of general semantics, a highly organized philosophical approach to language. Korzybski believed the imprecise use of language affected human behavior (people react mentally and physically to the meaning of words), causing confusion and miscommunication among people. Korzybski believed that the fundamental to thinking was the ability to distinguish and that the literal identification of one thing with another (when in fact it was not identical) is what causes difficulties and even insanity in Man. (p. 568)
semantic: of, pertaining to or arising from the different meanings of words or other symbols; of or relating to meaning in language. Page 58. (p. 615)
Hubbard, L. R. (1950). Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, a handbook of dianetic procedure (2007 ed.). Los Angeles: Bridge Publications, Inc.