In the previous instalment we explored two prominent schools of Philosophy; Continental and Analytic. In the early 20th century a Geneva-born philosopher called Ferdinand de Saussure had what might casually be termed 'A wee bit of a breakthrough', in terms of how we, you know, look at every single field of study in human existence.
Mark, this sounds a tad grandiose. Should I sit down?
Well sure; particularly if you're using a laptop. But that doesn't mean to say this world-altering, historical event requires a few deep breaths and intense concentration. It's actually quite straightforward - well, I think it will be if I manage this correctly! Of course, it's a big idea but not one to be intimidated by.
Why? Well, fundamentally, Saussure's breakthrough came via the form of Linguistics. If you think back to the excerpts from my essay in the previous post, I talk quite a bit about systems and organising meaning. Please try to hold this in mind throughout this series of blog posts. See, what is Language? Language, it could be said, is a system. If you think back to Structuralism, Language is a structured system of communication. We humans employ language, whether spoken, written or gestured to make something be known; to convey something. What Saussure did was discover something he called Semiology which is now sort of subsumed under Semiotics. Perhaps the most useful way to consider Saussure's Semiotics is via the video on Structuralism that I posted previously. If you remember, a useful graphic appeared which stated:
Language is not a nomenclature or a list of names of things
Language is a system of signs consisting of a
Signifier and Signified
This is Semiology.
When you consider that Structuralism is a method that 'Looks for the deep and hidden structures beneath the surface manifestations of meaning' then hopefully you can appreciate the salience of all of this to the work of the Psychotherapist
In the therapy room (at least in my practice; I, of course cannot speak for every mode of therapy) I am sat with a client and we are communicating. A lot of my work with children is pre-verbal, metaphorical work around play but of course, words are still used a lot of the time. Whatever the means of communication, I am observant of potential structures of deep and hidden meaning. What am I being told? What does the signifier signify?
A common example is the child who, when presented with art materials, takes the bottles of paint and nigh-on empties the entire contents onto the page. The signifier is the emptying of the paint. The signified - what this communicates - could be that this is a child flooded with emotions. It could also communicate that this is a child testing boundaries. 'I don't trust you yet. Where is the line? What is permitted? Will you tell me off and abandon me?' Many, many signifieds from the signifier.
What Saussure invokes with his breakthrough is a consideration of how the signifier comes to represent the signified. In his fantastic podcast Philosophize This! Stephen West uses a clear example. How has it come to be that the sound or the letters C-O-W scribbled on the page have come to signify the mooing bovine we all know and love so much? That sound, cow; the word C-O-W does not objectively correspond to the actual four-legged creature in the actual world. 'Cow' the word/sound/drawing represents the four legged creature. This is thanks to something we've (humans) constructed - to make things a little bit easier for us all. We are so very fond of putting things into little systems and giving an order to whatever we can just to give ourselves a less stressful time. Saussure is saying that these words (such as cow) only have meaning to us because they exist within a system; cow means something to me and you insofar as it is not any of the other words we have within our system, the English Language, West uses an example that has stayed with me for the last year or so since I heard it.
If you take just eight words there are 40320 ways you can re-arrange those words into a sentence. For the most part this will create a load of Lear-like nonsense. It is only when we give them a specific structure that any significant meaning emerges
What Saussure's development leads to is the realisation by numerous thinkers that structure underlies everything; psychology, economics, history, sciences (the list goes on). And if this is so then what about cultures? If an eight-word sentence produces 40320 variations then how many ways can we humans organise and structure meaning and societies out of the information provided to us by the universe? And how did we arrive at the way(s) we've arrived at? They have to be extremely narrow given the vast quantities of data we're dealing with. And what does it mean, that we must narrow things down so tightly in order to understand/function?
Next time we'll look at how we organise experience into meaning through stories. Through mythology and how mythology is not some cute little storybook from the past. It is alive right now.
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