I am exploring of a possibility of experiencing the world around without a language. By listening, speaking, seeing and reflecting on words made by the alphabets of a language - one experiences the World. How far is this correct?
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Genie was a feral child who was abused and grew up almost without linguistic skills but acquired some language skills as a teenager. The papers published on her case might provide insights into the view point of someone who does not have language. |
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As a speech-language therapist (M.S., CCC-SLP), I have met people who obviously perceive the world and who just as obviously lack language. During my training, I worked briefly with someone with global aphasia. Thanks to certain brain injuries, such as strokes, some people wind up with aphasia, or loss of some of their language abilities. The most severe form of aphasia, namely total loss of the ability to communicate with conventional (i.e. arbitrary) symbols, is called global aphasia. See this Wikipedia article on global aphasia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_aphasia Global aphasia differs from dementia in that global aphasia patients can do well on non-verbal IQ tests and on many tasks that do not require symbol use, whereas the victims of severe dementia score low on tests of language and cognition and have difficulty doing most tasks. Strokes and brain injuries arent' the only conditions that can manifest themselves in the lack of language. Over the last ten years or so, I have worked with increasing numbers of students whose autism is so severe that they have not acquired an L1, and must be taught to communicate with picture exchange. caseyr547 has already mentioned Genie. You may wish to read the book "Genie, a Scientific Tragedy" by Russ Rymer. Her case is instructive, but one need not look at such rare cases to document perception without language. |
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Though it doesn't exactly bring an answer to your question, I hope this can contribute to your reflexion. People suffering of depression are usually told to go to a shrink. In some european countries (esp. in France) cognitive behavioral therapies are not common, and patients have to go for a psychotherapy. When doing a psychotherapy, you can talk of anything you want with your shrink, but you have to express anything you've thought, experienced or felt through words, symbols and stylistic devices (when you discuss your dreams, for instance) Even though it can be an efficient treatment for most people, psychotherapies show their limits when it comes to people who are not at ease with language (not all but some patients with low education ; also young children), as they can't think their condition through words. That doesn't mean they are stupid or that it is impossible to cure them. It just means that language is not the way for them to experience the world. Other kinds of therapy work for these people, in particular through art. Painting can be a more natural way for these people to 1/ experience and 2/ express how they feel. |
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