Features of Jaynesian Consciousness --A Functional Reclassification of McVeigh’s Scheme

This paper attempts to reclassify the thirteen FOCI (Features/Functions of Conscious Interiority) discussed by Brian J. McVeigh into four domains according to their primary functions: the construction of mental space, information selection, self formation, and self narrative. The construction of mental space provides an internal domain in which experiences, memories, emotions, and plans can be positioned, observed, and manipulated. Information selection regulates what is excerpted from the vast range of sensory information, memories, emotions, and thoughts, what receives concentrated attention, and what is suppressed. Self formation construct s a structure of selfhood centred on the analog “I,” which acts, judges, and plans, and the metaphor “me,” which is observed and evaluated by that subject. Self narrative connects experiences temporally and meaningfully, thereby constructing a continuing p ersonhood and identity. These four domains are understood not as fixed and mutually exclusive categories, but as a functional structure whose components interact interdependently and recursively. The paper also considers the possibility of applying this cl assification as a conceptual framework for examining individual and cultural differences, hypnosis, possession, inner voices, and psychotherapy. The proposed classification is not intended to provide the only correct system for organizing McVeigh’s thirtee n FOCI, nor is it intended to revise or replace his theoretical account. Rather, it is offered as an interpretive reorganization intended to clarify, from another perspective, the primary functions performed by the individual FOCI within Jaynesian consciou sness and the relationships among them.