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ID_DENTED
March 20, 2021
Alfred Korzybski, _Science and Sanity_ (1933, 4th ed 1958):
"Identification, or the confusion of orders of
abstractions, in an _aristotealean_ or _infantile_
system, plays a much more pernicious role than the
present official psychiatry recognizes. _Any_
identification, at _any_ level, or of _any_orders,
represents a non-survival _s.r._ which leads
invariably to the reversal of the natural survival
order, and becomes the foundation for _general_
improper evaluation, and, therfore, _general_ lack of
adjustment, no matter whether the maladjustment is
subtle as in daily life, or whether it is aggravated
as in the cases of schizophrenia.
A _non-aristotelian system_, by a complete elimination
of 'identity' and identification, supplies simple yet
effective means for the elimination by preventive
education of this general source of maladjustment.
Book II is entirely devoted to this subject."
Section IV "Structural Factors in Null-A Language",
Chapter XII "On Order", p. 187
It occurs to me that the "present official psychiatry" of the
days of the mid-20th probably regarded "identification"
as a key factor in "empathy", and a complete absence of it
would be a sign of a damaged personality, psychopathic
or-- in jargon of the present-day-- sociopathic.
Delany's "Babel-17" might very well
have been riffing off of this-- BABEL-17
Korzybski wanted to *intentionally*
create the original damaged form of
the language Babel-17-- highly
logical, but sans I/thou
distinction, to facillitate the
creation of guilt-free assassins.
Presuming I get-- I mean
*grok*, man-- what he means
by "identification".
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