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Leonardo 34.4 (2001) 362-363



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Commentary

Open Letter on Synesthesia


This text is part of the Leonardo special project on Synesthesia and Intersenses, guest edited by Jack Ox and Jacques Mandelbrojt. Synesthesia is the phenomenon in which the stimulation of one sense modality gives rise to a sensation in another sense modality; for example, some synesthetes see colors when they hear music. This special project is devoted to the exploration of the nature and history of this phenomenon, as well as the discussion of intersense relationships, artworks and experiences.

The preceding article by B. Galeyev and I. Vanechkina provoked some strong comments by the Leonardo technical referees during the article's review phase, including misunderstandings with regard to several key concepts discussed by the authors and, most importantly, a lack of agreement between the referees and the authors about the definition of the term "synesthesia" itself. In response to the referees' comments author Bulat Galeyev wrote to Leonardo Executive Editor Roger Malina the following letter, which the editors feel sheds important light on many issues surrounding this topic. As part of the ongoing Leonardo special project on synesthesia, we publish Galeyev's letter here as an open letter to the community.

Dear Roger!

Thank you for your letter. I trouble you a lot. I do not feel hurt by your "hard" style. Of course, I am a bit guilty of using some polemical language (especially in the afterword), but otherwise it would be impossible to understand our purpose in writing an article. If I am hurt, it is only by the inadequacy of the review to the content of our article.

Considering everything, it seems we cannot reach an understanding with you. We speak different languages (I mean neither an "English-Russian" nor an "East-West" opposition). But, for truth's sake, I would like to explain for both you and the reviewer the essence and genesis of these misunderstandings.

It is historically established that the word "synesthesia" has been applied to two different phenomena. One of these is observed at the physiological level as an actual "co-sensation" (e.g. one hears sounds and, besides that, experiences accompanying color sensations). Such "synesthesia" is actually an abnormality; it is obsessive and appears despite the human will. This type is very rare. (By the way, it may be induced in any person's psyche by some drugs, i.e. under abnormal conditions.) Many people both in the East (Luria, Feihenberg, Bekhtereva and others) and in the West (Cytowic, Baron-Cohen and others) have investigated this phenomenon.

But there is another phenomenon included under the same title, which is connected with intersensory association and metaphorical thinking. That type of synesthesia relates to art, artists and musicians. In this sense practically all people are synesthetes; it is a common ability. (Otherwise we could not easily understand artists who used synesthetic methods and means.)

The reviewer is not right to mockingly ask if we know what synesthesia is. We have in our library hundreds of articles on synesthesia, dating from the 1880s, in various languages (including books by Cytowic and L. Marks, mentioned by the reviewer). And we can see that from the very beginning of the twentieth century there has appeared the necessity to distinguish these two phenomena (see, for instance, the work of C. Rossigneux in France, A. Wellek in Germany and others). In connection with [End Page 362] this it was proposed to name the first type of actual co-sensations (abnormalities) "clinical synesthesia," in contrast to ordinary synesthesia (which is normal in psychology and art).

We stress here especially: yes, both types of synesthesia really exist, but they are of different natures (just as, for instance, both hallucination and imagination are inherent in the human psyche, but they nevertheless should not be mixed up).

The first type of synesthesia is a subject for physiology, psychiatry, neurophysiology and medicine. The second type is a subject for psychology, aesthetics, art theory and semiotics. There is no in sense denying the difference between the two. It would be incorrect from a scientific point of view to...

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