title: Consciousness as a process: from the loneliness of William James to the buzzing and booming voices of contemporary science.
abstract: This Special Issue of IPBS brings the old metaphor of William James--consciousness as a "stream of thought"--to a contemporary critical inspection. It is demonstrated--based on materials of language (Panksepp 2008; Shanahan 2008), perception (Engelmann 2008) and dialogical self (Bertau 2008) that the classic river metaphor is an inadequate depiction of the multi-level psychological processes that are regulated by the affective systems of the brain and hierarchically integrated through dialogical and semiotic mechanisms.
authors.forename: Jaan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Valsiner
mesh_terms: D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D003243:Consciousness / Q000502:physiology*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D009484:Neuropsychology / Q000266:history*; D011582:Psychological Theory