Every step forward, in life and in thought, is a return to a beginning
in that it empties that much more the plan by which the journey is
directed. The journey that began this work was with the recondite lore
of aphasia. This early work led to a psychology of language, perception,
action, and feeling based on the principle of microgenesis. This
psychology and its corre- sponding brain process are detailed in my
book, Life of the Mind, a vade mecum for the ideas that are developed
further in this work. Now this psychology, a single thought exposed at
progressively deeper levels, is extended to the problems of time
awareness, consciousness and the nature of the self. It is astonishing,
is it not, that an aphasic error, a slip of the tongue, can be a
peephole on some of the ultimate mysteries of life? Over the last few
years I have had the occasion to present portions of this work at
various conferences and to different audiences, and have found, to my
dismay, that the theory is often difficult for many to grasp.