Lecturer's Précis -
Freud (1891)
"On
Aphasia" [Extract]
Copyright Notice: This material was
written and published in Wales by Derek J. Smith (Chartered Engineer). It forms
part of a multifile e-learning resource, and subject only to acknowledging Derek
J. Smith's rights under international copyright law to be identified as author
may be freely downloaded and printed off in single complete copies solely for
the purposes of private study and/or review. Commercial exploitation rights are
reserved. The remote hyperlinks have been selected for the academic appropriacy
of their contents; they were free of offensive and litigious content when
selected, and will be periodically checked to have remained so. Copyright © 2018, Derek J. Smith.
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First published online 11:12 4th March 2002, Copyright
Derek J. Smith (Chartered Engineer). This
version [2.1 - link to graphic] dated 09:00 BST 2nd July 2018
An earlier version
of this material appeared in Smith (1996; Chapter 7). It is repeated here with
minor amendments and supported with hyperlinks.
Sigmund Freud as
Cognitive Modeler
Long before he achieved fame with
his theory of psychoanalysis, the Austrian physician Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
was a competent neuropsychologist, having published an influential monograph on aphasia in 1891. In
it, he used information flow diagrams to explain the relationship between a
word and its referent. The paper became better known after it had been
translated into English (Stengel, 1953), and positively reviewed (Pribram, 1969; Henderson, 1992). Here is the core argument
in the words of the reviewer whose paper first brought the monograph to the
present author's attention .....
"From the psychological point of view the
'word' is the functional unit of speech; it is a complex concept constituted of
auditory, visual and kinaesthetic elements. [] We
learn to speak by associating a 'word sound image' [Wortklangbild]
with an 'impression of word innervation' [Wortinnervationsgefühl].
When we have spoken we are in possession of a 'kinaesthetic
word image' [Sprachbewegungsvorstellung], ie. of the sensory impressions from
the organs of speech. [] We learn the language of others by endeavouring
to equate the sound image produced by ourselves as much as possible to the one
[we originally heard], ie. we
learn to 'repeat'. [] We learn to spell by associating the visual images of the
letters with new sound images. [] We learn to read by linking up with each
other, according to certain rules, a succession of word innervation
impressions and kinaesthetic word impressions [].
Next we associate with those word images acquired by spelling the significance
attached to the original word sounds. [] We learn to write by reproducing the
visual images of the letters with the help of kinaesthetic
impressions received from the hand (cheiro-kinaesthetic
impressions) until we have obtained identical or similar pictures. [] The word,
then, is a complicated concept built up from various impressions, ie. it corresponds to an intricate
process of associations entered into by elements of visual, acoustic and kinaesthetic origins. However, the word acquires its
significance through its association with the 'idea (concept) of the object'
[Objektvorstellung] [which] is itself
another complex of associations [Assoziationskomplex]
composed of the most varied visual, auditory, tactile, kinaesthetic
and other impressions. [] In the light of observations in speech disorders we
have formed the view that the word concept (the idea of the word) is linked []
to the object concept. In consequence, we have arrived at a division of speech
disorders into two classes: (1) verbal aphasia [verbale
Aphasie], in which only the associations between
the single elements of the word concept are disturbed; and (2) asymbolic aphasia [asymbolische
Aphasie], in which the association between word
concept and object concept are disturbed." (Henderson,
1992:33-37; emphases added; German inserts from Vogel, 1992.)
Freud saw the primary sensory and
motor areas as being anatomically tied to particular functions because they
were directly connected to specific sensory or motor mechanisms. However, he
then saw them as "radiating" their primary activity out across
secondary and association areas of cortex, and drew attention to what might
happen when the radiations from different primary areas overlapped. In these
areas of overlap, he argued, "complexes of associations" (above)
would be formed, linking visual information to auditory, auditory to tactile,
tactile to articulatory, etc. And wherever this happened, areas to deal with
the conceptual side of language - semantic areas - would develop
quite automatically. (We mention this argument because it is wholly compatible
with the more recently developed holographic
theory of memory, in which great emphasis is laid on what happens when two
beams of wave energy coincide.) All this is shown diagrammatically below.
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Freud's (1891) Linked Storage Systems: Freud suggested that when an object is known to the
mind, two main storage systems are involved, namely a word concept system
and an object concept system. The word concept system stores
the surface forms of the name of the object, and the object concept system
stores all the mental associations of that object - the things which give
that object its meaning. The word concept system (the Wort system)
has, in turn, four lesser elements. These are the Bewegungsbild,
or "motor-image", the Klangbild,
or "sound-image", the Lesebild,
or "read-image", and the Schriftbild,
or "write-image". The object concept system (the Object-Associationen system) has, in turn, at least three
(and potentially a lot more) lesser elements. These are acustik,
or auditory object associations, taktil,
or tactile object associations, and visuell,
or visual object associations. Note how the overlapping
"radiations" from primary projection areas serve to create more
complex association areas. Note also that the primary connection between a
word and its meaning is between the sound image of the heard word and the
visual elements of the associated concept. And note finally that the
idea of a distributed semantic representation linked to separate input and
output word stores remains at the heart of modern psycholinguistics. It is unclear how much Freud may have been
influenced by the earlier work of Kussmaul
(1878), whose diagram is similar in
some respects. If this diagram fails to load automatically,
it may be accessed separately at |
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Redrawn from white-over-black originals of Figures 8 and 9 of the Vogel (1992) edition of Freud (1891). This version Copyright © 2002, Derek J. Smith. Freud actually drew single lines in Figure 8, and introduced the radiations in Figure 9: we show here how the two arguments can be merged into a single diagram. |
Evaluation and Further
For more detail we recommend the following
websites .....
General commentary from Rizzuto (2007 online)
Integration into modern psycholinguistic theory (Dell et al, 1997/2007
online)
Karl Pribram himself on holographic memory.
References
Freud, S. (1891). Zur Auffassung der Aphasien.
Vogel, P. (Ed.) (1992). Sigmund
Freud: Zur Auffassung der Aphasien.
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Recommended |