A Panting Consciousness: Beckett, Breath, and Biocognitive Feedback
Palgrave studies in literature, science and medicine January 1, 2021 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-74443-4_21 (opens in new tab) via OpenAlex
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractThe essay argues that focused breathing practices reveal and affect patterns in thinking through a reciprocal feedback loop the author terms 'biocognitive feedback.' This feedback is possible because of a structural intimacy and co-dependency between breath and consciousness, a relationship conceptualized by William James and reappraised by contemporary Buddhist-inspired cognitive sciences. Critically integrating psychological, cognitive, phenomenological, and narratological frameworks, the author investigates this co-dependent intimacy as represented, explored, and complicated in the narrative work of Samuel Beckett.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Consciousness Narrative Cognition |
| Citations | 3 |
| Key finding | Argues that the reciprocal feedback between breath and consciousness, termed 'biocognitive feedback,' is represented and complicated in the narrative work of Samuel Beckett. |
Abstract
Abstract Booming Western interest in mindfulness and meditation has significantly mainstreamed breath and breathing practices, where focussed breathing is taken to be conducive to novel psychological states. Thanks to the regulation of breathing patterns, patterns in our thinking are not just affected but revealed, together with their entanglement with respiration (in a variety of looping effects here considered as ‘biocognitive feedback’). What makes this reciprocal feedback possible is the structural intimacy and co-dependency of breath and consciousness—a dyadic and dynamic relationship already conceptualised by William James, and today reappraised by contemporary, Buddhist-inspired cognitive sciences. Critically integrating psychological, cognitive, phenomenological, and narratological frameworks, this essay investigates the co-dependent intimacy between breath and cognition as represented, explored, and complicated in the narrative work of Samuel Beckett.