The Nervous System and General Semantics

FROM ITS INCEPTION general semantics has had a close affinity with neurology and psychology . This is shown by the adoption by general semanticists of of such terms as 'neuro-semantic mechanisms,' 'neuro-symbolic processes,' 'neurolinguistic environment,' 'neuro-evaluational factors,' and in frequent announcements to the effect that general semantics ' . . . is concerned with the linguistic and semantic mechanisms which function in human nervous systems to condition our knowledge, activities and adjustments in life.' (40) Indeed the very title, Science and Sanity, under which the formulations of general semantics were first systematized, clearly announced Korkzybski's intention to integrate the data and constructs of the newly-founded discipline with those of the neurologic and psychologic sciences . As part of the broad program of working toward the unification of all sciences, this 'intellectual tropism' is to be warmly endorsed . But if semanticists would spare themselves years of barren groping, perplexity, and embarrassment and avoid that devastating nervous disorder designated by Johnson (35) the IFD