"A work of enormous breadth, likely to pleasantly surprise both general readers and experts."—New York Times Book Review This revolutionary book provides fresh answers to long-standing questions of human origins and consciousness. Drawing on his breakthrough research in comparative neuroscience, Terrence Deacon offers a wealth of insights into the significance of symbolic thinking: from the co-evolutionary exchange between language and brains over two million years of hominid evolution to the ethical repercussions that followed man's newfound access to other people's thoughts and emotions. Informing these insights is a new understanding of how Darwinian processes underlie the brain's development and function as well as its evolution. In contrast to much contemporary neuroscience that treats the brain as no more or less than a computer, Deacon provides a new clarity of vision into the mechanism of mind. It injects a renewed sense of adventure into the experience of being human.

Presents the story of Philip Benjamin, a young man haunted by images of his staid, middle-class parents and frightened by the thought of revealing his homosexual identity to them.

There's always a story behind the story, but the keenest observers have to break through the surface to reach it. This remarkable book reveals the hidden meaning behind familiar images and words, from the origins of Santa Claus and the meaning of Cinderella's name to the metaphoric significance of the unicorn and the fleur-de-lys. A prominent authority on symbols, author Harold Bayley spent years gathering and compiling the contents of this volume. Mythology, folklore, religious texts, and fairy tales from around the world constitute his primary sources. Bayley also draws upon the secret traditions of ancient cultures and medieval mystical sects to deconstruct the symbols embedded in watermarks and printers' emblems. Most of these images have lost their earliest significance and now serve strictly commercial purposes; Bayley explains their original meanings, and he cross-references similarities between symbols and stories across the globe to illuminate their evolving cultural significance. More than 1,400 illustrations enhance this classic work, which features an index for ease of reference.