A research into synaesthesia

Abstract

The article reviews the main theoretical contributions on the theme of synaesthesia both in a psychiatric, neurolinguistic and artistic sphere. A historical overview sees the semantic ambiguity of the term “synaesthesia” emerging, indicating on the one hand perceptual automatisms linked to particular interconnectivity modalities of the cerebral cortex, which can have a pathological origin, on the other hand it can explain the origin of complex and advanced skills such as language and human creativity. Given that synaesthetic capacities, starting from E. Bleuler, were considered the expression of an “unconscious” activity of man, the author proposes a convergence of the research into synaesthesia with the one into the origin and the creation of non-conscious images and language carried out by Massimo Fagioli. It could be possible in this way to reach a new understanding of the role synaesthesia plays in the creative processes at the basis of the construction of images and language.