GENERAL SEMANTICS 1952

IRVING J . LEE*
on general semantics came in 1933, the First Congress in
T HE FIRST BOOK
1935, the first public effort to teach the subject and the first popularization
in 1938, the first outline of a course in 1939, the first textbook in 1940, and
the first journal in 1943 .
Today, there are two organizations with 4,000 paying members, two journals,
a "must" reading list of 25 items, a basic bibliography of 300 items, articles in
three encyclopedias, courses listed in the catalogues of some 25 colleges and
universities, about 100 teachers incorporating materials in other courses .
In what follows I shall try to summarize some of the developments .

ONCE had some lessons with a golf pro . He watched me swing. He took
I some pictures. He explained that I was more interested in seeing where
the ball went than in hitting it off the tee, that I was stiff in the wrong places .
He held my arms and moved me around . He demonstrated. He told me what
I did when the ball was topped, hooked, or sliced . He watched me hit dozens of
balls . He was doing three things : diagnosing my inept behavior, prescribing
new practices, and testing my learning .
I heard Alfred Korzybski's lectures on general semantics in 1938 and
wrote an introduction to the subject in 1941 . But it was not until those sessions
with the golf pro that I realized the strength and weakness of the enterprise .
The metaphor is vulnerable, but let me risk it . Korzybski was a pro, too .
He was not looking at a man's stance, grip, swing, but at the way a man
perceived-assumed-thought-felt-talked about anything . It was the adequacy of
a man's evaluating and talking that was Korzybski's focus .
He had found a way of diagnosing and cataloguing those human actions and
assertions that led to human trouble-conflict, confusion, wasted energy, mis-
understanding-no matter where it happened . He evolved an analytical schema
by which he could point to the over-simplifications, distortions, and maladaptive
modes of talking about things, along with some devices and practices by which
to overcome them .
Students who took the 36-hour seminar at the Institute of General Semantics
in Chicago learned about the theory and the advice . They were urged to do
* Irving J . Lee (Ph .D ., Northwestern, 1938) is Professor of Public Speaking in the
School of Speech, Northwestern University. This paper is reprinted by permission, with
slight additions, from Quarterly Journal of Speech, XXXVIIII (February 1952), 1-12 .
103


ETC. : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS VOL. IX, NO . 2

with them what they could . There was no clinic where one could practice the
elimination of, say, any particular misevaluation under the guidance of a
semantic pro. There were no situations where the learning could be tested, no
way of focusing the analysis on the needs of the individual students . This is
why the students were like golfers who attended lectures and then went to the
links to put the content of the lectures to work . Occasionally they did, frequently
they didn't. There were exceptions . Korzybski did find time to work directly
in sustained fashion with a number of students about problems they brought
to him . Some corresponded with him afterward . For the rest, however, there
were only the lectures and the books.' Gilbert Ryle said that "A soldier does not
become a shrewd general merely by endorsing the strategic principles of Clause-
witz ; he must also be competent to apply them ." Alfred Korzybski died in
March, 1950 . He had devised and explained the principles . He had not estab-
lished a training-testing program with equal thoroughness .

The Point o f View

HERE ARE many reasons why it is difficult to give a capsule answer to the
T question, "What is general semantics?" What Highet said of William James
gives just one :
He found it impossible to make a long, sustained, orderly, authoritative
speech and to unfold, stage by stage, argument by argument, proof by
irresistible proof, a philosophical theory . He felt that any such speech
would stiffen and cripple the essential flexibility of thought, and that any
such theory must misrepresent the infinite complexities and novelties and
inconsistencies of reality.2

Nevertheless, I have found it convenient to approach the subject in three ways .

1 . As a description of a methodology of statement analysis and performance,
as a set of things to do if one wished any or all of the following :
a . The recognition and achievement of the varying degrees of specificity,
precision, and accuracy in assertion ;
b. The distinction between the bewildering variety of statements which take
the declarative mode since any one may be mistaken for another : verifiable and
non-verifiable, factual and inferential, lie, fiction, fantasy, error, those which do
and do not involve variable terms, those which label or define and those which
describe, etc .
c . The recognition of the forms of oversimplification which tend to accom-
pany talking (1) in terms of causal rather than functional relationships, (2) in
additive terms about non-additive relationships, (3) in terms of symmetrical
'The workshops of the Institute in Lakeville, Conn ., are now, organized to do some-
thing more .
' Gilbert Highet, The Art of Teaching (New York, 1950), p . 233 .
1 04


WINTER 1952 GENERAL SEMANTICS

relationships to the neglect of the assymetrical, (4) in terms which split and
separate what is to be found whole or inter-related, (5) in subject-predicate
forms which obliterate relational factors .
2 . As a description of a person's orientation, the general and specific tend-
encies, perspectives, attitudes a person may take in his adjustment to situations
and people and in his definition of himself. These become types o f reaction
found in all degrees, variations, and combinations . If they are phrased in oppo-
sitional terms, it is for brevity only . Here the concern is with how much and
under what circumstances a person reveals the following :
a. Does he ever go beyond his present premises and knowledge to face facts
and theories which are different?
b . Is he disposed to listen to others to discover what "they have in mind"
instead of arrogantly assuming that he knows without the investigation?
c . Does he respond in trigger-fashion without analysis of situations, or does
he exhibit the control which accompanies delay-of-reaction?
d. Does he expect to find things and people alike, unchanging, or are his
expectancies attuned to the possibilities of difference and process? Is his think-
ing in terms of fixed types, kinds, categories, or does he take account of graded
variations?
e. In his moments of painful "emotion," anger, hatred, fear, shame, in-
dignation, or envy is he aware of the object of his feeling? Does he respond to
the object in its setting or is he responding to some associated label or verbal
definition of the situation? Do his feelings of being afraid, hurt, insulted (which
may be justified in any one situation) freeze into chronic resentments and fears
as if the stimulus continued, or does he seek to fix the feelings in space-time,
thus forcing re-examination and attack on the chronicity?
f . When faced with the necessity of making decisions, is he willing to
experiment and act in terms of what is known, or does he take refuge in post-
poning action until "all the data are in"?
g . When faced with problems requiring solution does he tend to think by
verbalization, projecting ready-made linguistic schemes onto the facts under con-
sideration, or does he think by visualization, directing his attention to pictures
and situations without words, thus involving the structural aspects unrestricted
by the verbally-defined categories?
3 . As a set of premises, assumptions and claims, based on data available in
1933 which must be modified if new data are found :
a . That it is possible to create a general theory of sanity and human evalua-
tion based on physico-mathematical methods which is not only internally con-
sistent but usable and teachable ;
b . That only the human class of life by virtue of its capacity to use symbols
can begin where others leave off, and that upon this physical fact of inter-
105


ETC. : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS VOL . IX, NO. 2

dependence can be established a rationale for a system of ethics, human relations,

and feelings of social responsibility ;
c. That any point of view about the behavior of human beings must start
by considering them organisms-as-a-whole-in-an-environment, and that any
analysis which implies a splitting must end in blind-alley over-generalizations ;
d . That meanings of words or things are not merely matters of verbal
definition, but are inseparably connected with "intellectual" and "emotional"
states and colored by past experiences ; that what something means is a com-
posite of, at least, the cultural-psychological-logical-neurological-physiological-
factors all interrelated ;
e . Though a language may be used for many purposes, persuasion, poetry,
polemics, etc ., whenever it is used, it functions as a form of representation, a
map which stands for territory inside and/or outside the person ;
f. That the linguistic forms used by a people are involved in the formation
of their attitudes ; that a man who uses a structurally correct language will be
moved to evaluations which are more appropriate than if he uses one which is
structurally distorting ;
g. That the creative achievements of man throughout history is evidence
of human potentialities ; that though we may live in a time of war and anxiety
there is reason for despair only if men do not recognize the part their evaluation-
talking processes play in the preservation of defeatist and destructive dogmas .

Two Points o f Confusion

HOSE WHO came to the subject did not always take it in the terms intended .
T There were over-emphases, errors in translation, and some misconceptions .
From the list I choose two .
The first has to do with the belief that in Science and Sanity 3 there is a de-
limiting, positivistic bent in favor of particular linguistic forms to the exclusion
or denigration of others . The reader may test his own view . Which of the follow-
ing is encouraged and which discouraged?

A . The use of ambiguous, abstract, vague, generalized, imprecise, inaccurate,

fanciful, imaginative statements .
B . The use of concrete, specific, precise, definite, accurate, realistic state-
ments .

As I understand the book, especially Chapter XVII on "Higher Order Abstrac-

tions," the answer is neither . The attitude, instead, is something like this . Each
of these forms serves certain purposes . With general statements, for example, it
is possible to make quick summaries, write a constitution and by-laws, describe
'Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity : An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems
and General Semantics (Lakeville, Conn., Third Edition, 1948) .
1 06


WINTER 1952 GENERAL SEMANTICS

what is widely true, provide instructions to administrators who need broad guid-
ance as well as freedom of action, formulate over-all policies and plans of
action . Similarly, fanciful and imaginative writings are useful when men have
needs and purposes that go beyond the immediate, or when they would make
blueprints of things that are not which they might try to approximate .
Korzybski never (to my knowledge 4 ) urged that men speak in terms of B
to the exclusion of A . What he did say was this : Men must know what and
whereof they speak . They must know the difference between the A and B forms.
They must not commit identification, i .e., speak in one mode as if they were
speaking in another . They must be protected from the malaise of false knowledge
which comes when a man speaks inaccurately, fancifully, as if he were speaking
accurately, realistically . He wanted a consciousness of the character of a man's
abstracting. I have not been able to find a single place where Korzybski wrote
that the A forms are valueless, that men ought to give them up . I have often,
however, heard him thunder away at those who analyzed problems in the A
form even as they gave them the status that properly belongs to B . Indeed, one
of Korzybski's proudest boasts was that in general semantics he was able to give
broad formulation to the principles of good sense which were stated in various
parts of the curriculum . His approach again paralleled that of the golf pro. To
avoid certain obstacles a golfer might want to hook or slice . It is the task of the
teacher to help the student realize when he is doing what .

SECOND point of confusion has to do with Korzybski's attitude toward "the

A Laws of Thought," Identity (A is A), Contradiction (Nothing can be
A and non-A), and Excluded Middle (A is either B or non-B) .
If these laws are considered as statements about statements in reasoned dis-
course, then they must be rigorously observed if speakers are to "avoid evident
self-contradiction ." a If I say that ice is at the same time and in the same place
cold and not-cold to the touch, I may be writing poetry, indulging in fantasy, tell-
ing a lie, or contradicting myself . Qualities may, of course, be present and absent
at different times . It is hard to see how one can quarrel with these assertions .
And I cannot find that Korzybski ever did. He did believe that the use of the con-
tradictory and identity forms helped to shape a man's outlook . A man who
habitually talked in this mode ("Democracy is either efficient or not-efficient")
might not be readily disposed to consider the degree of efficiency in some indi-
vidual situation . A man oriented so broadly to the notion that things are or
are not might well be unwilling to consider when and to what extent the things
are or are not . In short, what is necessary for the avoidance of contradiction,
may be profoundly exaggerating or restricting once the contradiction has been
avoided . In Korzybski's words "The law of excluded middle . . . which gives

'This phrase is to be understood whenever I make such conclusion-statements .

'W. Stanley Jevons, Logic (London, 1934), pp . 117-120 .
1 07


ETC. : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS VOL . IX, NO . 2

the two-valued character to aristotelian 'logic,' establishes, as a general principle,

what represents only a limiting case and so, as a general principle, must be
unsatisfactory ." a

An Inventory

A CONCEPTUAL scheme 7 is a way of ordering and determining what you see

and what you look for in a situation . It consists of a set of terms which
represent certain assumptions, details, or relationships not abstracted by another .
Imagine a speech, say, Lincoln's Second Inaugural, which should be analyzed by
these men in terms of the views in the book indicated : Aristotle, Rhetoric ;
Freud, An Outline o f Psychoanalysis ; I . A . Richards, Interpretation in Teaching ;
and Kenneth Burke, A Rhetoric o f Motives. In all likelihood each would make
a very different sort of critique, pointing to quite different aspects and putting
the elements in a different order of significance . One set of terms yields insights
denied to another .
Korzybski did not say that the relationships in the human dimension he was
pointing to were new or unique with him . Indeed, in 1924 he wrote :

All human achievements are cumulative ; no one of us can claim any

achievement exclusively as his own ; we all must use consciously or un-
consciously the achievements of others, some of them living but most of
them dead .
Much of what I will say has been said before by many others .
It will be impossible to give a full list of authors but the names of
a few stand prominent . . . Alfred Whitehead and Bertrand Russell . . .
Henri Poincare . . . Cassius J . Keyser . . . Albert Einstein . I will largely
use here their ideas, methods and language, as my main concern is the
practical application of some of their great ideas . 8

He did claim that he had brought together much that was disparate, that he
had focused on what had hitherto seemed inchoate, and systematically formulated
it all into "a useful way of thinking and talking" about human thinking and
talking .
But was his conceptual scheme methodologically useful? Could people take
it and see or do with it anything which was at least clarifying and at most
heuristic?
I here acknowledge the danger of bias . Since I cannot describe all the uses,
I must make a sampling . I cannot list these without implying that they are
accomplishments of some worth . I must leave the assessment of the worth to
'Alfred Korzybski, op . cit ., p . 405 .
. L . J . Henderson, "Science, Logic and Human Intercourse," Harvard Business
'Cf
Review, XII (1934), p . 317 .
"Alfred Korzybski, "Fate and Freedom," The Mathematics Teacher, XVI (May,
1923), pp . 274-275 ; also in I . J . Lee, ed ., The Language of Wisdom and Folly (New
York, 1949), p . 342 .
1 08


WINTER 1952 GENERAL SEMANTICS

specialists capable of making it . In each instance, however, this much can be

said : the formulations of general semantics play a role . The person mentioned
was able to use them.

COMMUNICATION. The relations of general semantics to the teaching of

English and the content of English courses are variously indicated, defined, and
developed by Hayakawa, 9 LaBrant, 10 Leary and Smith," McCrimmon . 12 Related
considerations of basic communication are similarly described in Chisholm 18
and Murray . 14 Johnson 15 has given a searching and revealing statement of the
communication process . Bontrager 16 and Chisholm 17 are concerned with the
improvement of reading . Hayakawa 18 and Johnson 19 consider what is involved
in more effective listening . Sondel 20 uses some of the formulations in an analysis
of conversation and public speaking . The materials served as a reference point
in a study of communication breakdowns in committees . 21

COUNSELING . Lindgren 2 2 recommends general semantics "as a counseling

tool because it enables the counselor to become a more effective agent to help
° S . I . Hayakawa, Language in Thought and Action (New York, 1949) .
70 Lou LaBrant, We Teach English (New York, 1950) . See also her A Genetic
Approach to Language (Lakeville, Conn ., 1949) .
"William G . Leary and James Steel Smith, Think Before You Write (New York,
1951) .
"James McCrimmon, Writing With a Purpose (New York, 1950) .
" Francis P . Chisholm, et al., Student Syllabus and Handbook in Basic Communica-
tions (River Falls, Wis ., n . d .) . See also his Introductory Lectures in General Semantics
(3rd printing, Lakeville, Conn ., 1947) .
" Elwood Murray, Integrative Speech : Speech Communication in Human Manage-
ment (Denver, 1950) . See also his The Speech Personality (New York, 1944) and Wilson
B . Paul, Frederick Sorenson, and Elwood Murray, "A Functional Core for the Basic
Communications Course, Quarterly Journal of Speech, XXXII (1946), pp. 232-244 ; also
ETC ., IV (1947), pp . 112-125 .
" Wendell Johnson, "Speech and Personality," in The Communication of Ideas, ed .
by Lyman Bryson (New. York, 1948), pp . 53-78 .
" O . R. Bontrager, "Reading Clinics Anatomized," ETC., II (1945), pp . 193-202 ;
"Some Neglected Considerations of Order in Current Reading Methodologies," General
Semantics Bulletin, Numbers Four and Five (1950-1951), pp . 28-35 .
" Francis P . Chisholm, "General Semantics in Reading Instruction," in Twentieth
Century English, ed . by William S. Knickerbocker (New York, 1946), pp . 171-185 .
18 S . I . Hayakawa, "The Task of the Listener," ETC ., VII (1949), pp . 9-17 .
10 Wendell Johnson, "Do You Know How to Listen?" ETC ., VII (1949), pp . 3-9 ;
"Being Understanding and Understood, or How to Find a Wandering Horse," ETC.,
VIII (1951), pp . 171-179 .
°OBess Sondel, Are You Telling Them? (New York, 1947) .
"Irving J . Lee, How to Talk with People (New York, 1952) .
"H . C. Lindgren, Occupations 27 (1949), pp. 229-233 ; reprinted in ETC., VI
(1949), pp . 238-244.
1 09
ETC. : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS VOL . IX, NO . 2

the client to use his own resources in achieving adjustment." Camp 28 and
Smithies 24 see the possibilities of programs of preventive guidance . Camp 25
concludes that "it is possible to train children in the premises and principles of
general semantics and to retrain adolescents and adults once they have developed
faulty language attitudes and habits." Murray, 28 Spriestersbach 27 and Yorke 28
develop these themes .

HUMAN RELATIONS. MacGowan 29 teaches a year's course in human rela-

tions in a senior high school built around "experiences selected to assist in ful-
filling . . . human needs" in which "the inaccuracies and pitfalls in our . . . tra-
ditional thinking" are systematically attacked . Berrien 30 finds that misunder-
standings and socially intelligent behavior lend themselves to semantic analysis .
In "diagnosing human situations" Roethlisberger 31 points to the necessity of
noting "(1) the danger of treating alike by words things that are different and
unique, and (2) the danger of separating by words things that are inseparable
in fact ." The authors 32 of Naval Leadership say in their opening paragraph
"The naval officer, if he will invest the effort necessary to understand scientific
principles and to learn a few of the scientists' skills, can become a more effective
handler of men ." In teaching courses in human relations Cabot and Kahl 33 note
occasions when "one confuses the past situation, the words, and the feelings
within one. A study of elementary semantics helps to overcome this tendency
and aids in viewing the world more clearly ." My own 34 explorations in classes
with policemen, foremen, and grade school teachers suggest that didactic instruc-
tion in the principles has some observable (but not dramatic) effects in their
evaluations of their work and other people .
"N. Harry Camp, "How Language Affects Behavior," Education, 70 (1950), pp.
471-491 .
"Elsie Smithies, "An Experiment in Preventive Guidance," Journal of the National
Association o f Deans o f Women, 6 (1942), pp . 3-10 .
"From the printed abstract of N. Harry Camp, A Semantic Approach to Guidance,
unpublished doctorate dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1948 .
"' ° ' " Elwood Murray, "Self-Guidance Through Group Approaches and General
Semantics," Duane C. Spriestersbach, "The Role of General Semantics in Counseling,"
Gertrude Cushing Yorke, "Preventive Group Counseling - A New Technique," Education,
70 (1950), pp. 501-505, 515-518, 523-534 .
" W . Leroy MacGowan, "A High School Course in Human Relations," General
Semantics Bulletin, Numbers Four and Five (1950-1951), pp . 56-58 .
"F. K. Berrien, Cases and Comments on Human Relations (New York, 1951),
Chs. II and III.
"F. J . Roethlisberger, Management and Morale (Cambridge, 1950), pp . 96-101 .
"Prepared at the United States Naval Academy (Annapolis, 1945), p. 3 .
"Hugh Cabot and Joseph A . Kahl, "Teaching Human Relations," Journal of Gen-
eral Education, V (1951), p . 306 .
"Irving J. Lee, "The Assumptions of the Arrogant," Education 70 (1950), pp. 509-
511, and How Do You Talk About People? Freedom Pamphlets (New York, 1950) .
110


WINTER 1952 GENERAL SEMANTICS

LAW . Mermin 35 considers the formulations in a discussion of matters of

definition, truth and ethics in jurisprudence . Burrell 36 argues for "a new ap-
proach to the problem of wilful and wanton misconduct ." Loevinger 37 notes
that "a long line of distinguished writers from Arnold to Bentham, have pointed
out the need for a discipline of legal semantics . . . . It is time to insist that the
garrulous goddess begin to talk sense." Pearson 38 says, " . . . it seems to me fair
to hold out general semantics as a useful means of orientation in the law, a
means calculated to dissipate verbalistic pitfalls and furnish a technique of
analysis and solution of legal problems generally ."

PSYCHOTHERAPY . Frohman 39 sees "general semantics utilized as an auxiliary

to psychotherapy." Campbell 40 believes "these methods do not replace other
psychotherapeutic procedures so much as they supplement or sharpen them ." He
has also said, "As an educational technique, this prevents the unconscious as-
sumption of false-to-fact notions of `life,' which would lead to later maladjust-
ments. As a therapeutic technique, even in schizophrenics, it materially shortens
the length of treatment, and, to judge from several years experience, produces
more lasting results in terms of independence, plasticity, etc." 41 The formula-
tions have been used in direct treatment of two cases of psychopathic personality
with chronic alcoholism, 42 of 100 cases of "verbal obsessionism," 43 in group
psychotherapy in traumatic neuroses with 7,000 soldiers in hospitals in the

'Samuel Mermin, "The Study of jurisprudence-A Letter to a Hostile Student,"

Michigan Law Review, 49 (1950), pp . 39-72 .
' David M. Burrell, "A New Approach to the Problem of Wilful and Wanton Mis-
conduct," Insurance Law Journal, Number 321 (1949), pp . 716-726 ; also in ETC., VII
(1950), pp . 253-269 .
"Lee Loevinger, "The Garrulous Goddess," ETC ., VII (1949), p . 51 . See also his
"The Semantics of Justice," ETC., VIII (1950), pp . 34-43 .
" George Burton Pearson, Jr ., "General Semantics and the Law," General Semantics
Bulletin, Numbers Four and Five (1950-1951), p . 19 .
' Bertrand S . Frohman, M .D., Brief Psychotherapy (Philadelphia, 1948), pp . 206-
217.
40 Douglas G. Campbell, M.D ., "Neuropsychiatric Foundations and Clinical Applica-
tions of General Semantics," Papers from the Second American Congress on General
Semantics, ed. by M. Kendig (Chicago, 1943), p. 129 .
"Douglas Gordon Campbell, M .D ., General Semantics and Schizophrenic Reactions
(Chicago, n .d .), p . 17 .
" John G. Lynn, M.D., "Report of Two Cases of Psychopathic Personality with
Chronic Alcoholism Treated by The Korzybskian Method," General Semantics, Papers
from the First American Congress for General Semantics, collected by Hansell Baugh
(New York, 1938), pp. 90-100 .
" Douglas Gordon Campbell, M.D., and Charles B . Congdon, M.D ., "A Report on
the Psychotherapeutic Application of General Semantics," ibid., pp . 88-89 .
111


ETC.: A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS VOL . IX, No . 2

European Theater between 1943 and 1945, 44 and in description and diagnosis
of the "psychopathic personality ." 45 Thorne 46 takes a broad position :
From our viewpoint, it is possible to regard the whole process of case
handling as an exercise in general semantics . This concept is particularly
applicable to all the methods which seek to improve intellectual resources .
. . . It cannot be assumed that the client unaided can learn semantic
methods automatically after emotional blockages have been removed . On
the contrary a person may be emotionally healthy in the beginning and
still become involved in semantic maladjustments through failure in train-
ing . One of the functions of personality counseling is to give the client
a semantic "overhauling ."

SPEECH CORRECTION . Johnson 47 views stuttering "as a semantogenic dis-

order of a diagnosogenic type." Brown 48 presents some of the identifications
which occur in the neuro-semantic processes of stutterers and "how they operate
to influence those evaluations of which stuttering may be the observable mani-
festation ." Spriestersbach 49 continues this study of the role of semantogenic
problems . Backus 50 has experimented in intensive group therapy with some
300 clients presenting widely varied speech symptoms .

TEACHING . Newton 61 found in Korzybski's material "a solid basis for a

twentieth century attitude toward the creative arts" and utilized it in his lectures
and discussions in the "common program of unified first year work," for "stu-
dents in architecture, landscape architecture, and city planning at the Harvard
Graduate School of Design." Loomis 52 built a course in embryology at MIT
"Douglas M . Kelley, M .D ., The Use of General Semantics and Korzybskian Prin-
ciples as an Extensional Method of Group Therapy in Traumatic Neuroses (Lakeville,
Conn ., 1948) .
' Hervey Cleckley, M .D ., The Mask of Sanity : An Attempt to Clarify Some Issues
About the So-Called Psychopathic Personality (St . Louis, 1950) .
"Frederick C. Thorne, M.D., Principles of Personality Counseling (Brandon, Vt.,
1950), p. 388 .
`T Wendell Johnson, "The Problem of Stuttering from the Point of View of General
Semantics," Kendig, op . cit ., p. 193 . See also his People in Quandaries (New York,
1946), Ch . XVII.
"Spencer F . Brown, "An Analysis of Certain Data Concerning Loci of 'Stutterings'
from the Viewpoint of General Semantics," Kendig, op . cit ., pp . 194-199 .
9° Duane C. Spriestersbach, A Study o f the Evaluative Behavior o f Male Stutterers,
unpublished doctorate dissertation, State University of Iowa, 1948 .
60 Ollie Backus, "The Principle of Non-Identity Applied to Speech Therapy, General
Semantics Bulletin, Numbers Four and Five (1950-1951), pp . 20-27 .
"Norman T . Newton, An Approach to Design (Cambridge, 1951), pp. vii-xi .
"William Farnsworth Loomis, M .D ., "A Non-Aristotelian Presentation of Embry-
ology," a paper presented at the Third Congress on General Semantics, 1949 . See also his
"On Korzybski and the Teaching of Science," General Semantics Bulletin, Numbers Four
and Five (1950-1951), pp . 59-60 .
112


WINTER 1952 GENERAL SEMANTICS

"along consciously non-aristotelian lines ." "The principles . . . were stressed . . .

not only by application but also by direct discussion ." Hoskins, 53 seeing music
as a language, found it possible to reconcile disagreements concerning musical
structure, harmony, etc ., and reorganize the teaching of listening and composi-
tion at the college level . Semmelmeyer S 4 applied extensional methods to the
teaching of arithmetic in the eighth grade. "The pupils observed more and
verbalized less ." McNealy 55 saw general semantics "as an aid in acquiring the
inductive approach," in classroom teaching of medical students . "The student
must have a reliable method of looking for and dealing with new data ."
English 56 in describing his course in the University of Missouri School of
Journalism says, "The formulations of general semantics . . . can serve as the
basic structure for understanding and synthesizing the vast amount of communi-
cations data which we already have and which will become increasingly complex
as more and more information is derived ."
Rapoport 67 described some difficulties in teaching elementary physics to
aviation cadets and Weinberg 68 presented a "point of view on the general
problem of why physics students 'don't catch on .' "

THEORY AND CRITICISM . Mowrer and Lamoreaux 69 conclude that " . . .

many so-called conditioning studies . . . have not dealt with conditioning in pure
form but rather in a form which is a complex admixture of conditioning and
discrimination learning . . . . The fact that Korzybski and Gantt know both
Russian and English and that both of them now prefer the terms 'conditional'
and 'unconditional' to 'conditioned' and 'unconditioned' raises more than a mere
semantic issue : it raises questions regarding the basic nature of the underlying
process ."

°' William Barnes Hoskins, "On General Semantics and Music," a pre-print of a
paper to appear in General Semantics Bulletin, Numbers 6 and 7 (1951) .
64 Madeline Semmelmeyer, "Use of Extensional Methods in Dealing with Higher
Order Abstractions in Reading : An Experiment in Teaching Arithmetic," General Seman-
tics Bulletin, Numbers Four and Five (1950-1951), pp . 36-43 .
"Raymond D . McNealy, M.D ., "General Semantics in Medical Education," Kendig,
op. cit ., pp . 135-138 .
"Earl English, "A General Semantics Course in the School of journalism," a paper
presented at the Third Congress on General Semantics, 1949 .
"Anatol Rapoport, "Newtonian Physics and Aviation Cadets," ETC., I (1944), pp.
154-164 .
08 Alvin M . Weinberg, "General Semantics and the Teaching of Physics," American
Physics Teacher, 7 (1935), pp. 104-108 .
b' O. H. Mowrer and R. R . Lamoreaux, "Conditioning and Conditionality (Discrimina-
tion)," Psychological Review, 58 (1951), pp . 196, 208 .

113


ETC . : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS VOL. IX, NO . 2

Meyers 60 utilizes "the differences between fact-finding and hypothesizing"

in his analysis of the improbability of Dandy's assertion "that the 'center of
consciousness' in the human brain is located within the tissues irrigated by the
anterior cerebral artery of the left (presumably dominant) hemisphere ." Rosen 61

describes the verbalisms which constitute "one of the important reasons for the
failures of many to continue to do fenestration surgery after completing the
prescribed course in spite of the financial sacrifice involved in training . . ."
Devereux 62 concludes, "We could say with Korzybski that there is no longer a
similarity between the structure of the nervous system and the (delusional)
structure of the schizophrenic's picture of the world . He still extrapolates from
reality, but no longer troubles to check the results of his extrapolations against
reality ." Zipf 63shows "how semantic problems, in terms of the variable lan-
guage of culture, may enter into individual and social behavior ; and often in
ways that are so similar as to arouse the suspicion of an isomorphism between
the individual and the social field ." Janssen believes it possible to state and
64

apply "specific criteria" for freedom and democratic action within the frame-
work of time-binding techniques to national and international problems ."
Danz 65
argues that the intrusion of verbal factors affects an observer's aware-
ness of art objects . Pollock describes his study as "a theoretical basis for the
H6

investigation of literature as a social phenomenon in terms which are consonant

both with our contemporary knowledge of language and with the development
of modern science." Arnesen,B 7 in the framework of social control, sees "lan-
guage as an implement of social pressure" and "as instrument of cultural ad-
vancement ." Read 68 shows by historical and comparative analysis that the word
"semantics" often appears in contexts that tend to bolster word magic rather
than to combat it.
eu
Russell Meyers, M .D., "Dandy's Striatal Theory of 'The Center of Consciousness,'
Surgical Evidence and Logical Analysis Indicating its Improbability," Archives of Neurol-
ogy and Psychiatry, 65 (1951), pp. 659-671 .
' Samuel Rosen, M .D ., "Teaching Fenestration Surgery," American Journal o f Surgery,
LXXX (1950), pp. 491-492 .
' George Devereux, "A Sociological Theory of Schizophrenia," Psychoanalytic Re-
view, 26 (1939), pp . 315-342 .
ea George K . Zipf, "General Semantics and the Principle of Least Effort : A Synthesis,"
a paper presented at the Third Congress on General Semantics, 1949 .
84 Guthrie E . Janssen, "A Time-binding Measure for Democratic Action," a paper
presented at the Third Congress on General Semantics, 1949 .
"Louis Danz, Personal Revolution and Picasso (New York, 1941) .
86 Thomas Clark Pollock, The Nature of Literature (Princeton, 1942) .
87 Elias T. Arnesen, "Language and Semantics," in Social Control, ed . by Joseph S .
Roucek (New York,1947), Ch . XIV.
"Allen Walker Read, "The Background of the Word 'Semantics,' " trans/formation :
arts communication environment, Vol . I, No . 1 (1950), pp . 24-25 ; "How Useful is the
Word 'Semantics'?" ibid ., Vol . 1, No . 2 (1951), pp . 78-82 .
114


WINTER 1952 GENERAL SEMANTICS

Some Omissions
ERE I PROMISING anything more than a hasty overview I should want to
W report the range of theoretical and practical interests of many other care-
ful students . The following is again a sampling : the instructional program at
Coro Foundation in San Francisco ; the extension classes of Michigan's Emeritus
Professor of General Linguistics, Clarence L . Meader, in Ann Arbor and Detroit ;
the classes in the Graduate School of the U . S . Department of Agriculture in
Washington, D . C., given by Captain J . A . Saunders, USN (Ret.) ; the work in
Criminology of Dr . Douglas M . Kelley at the University of California in
Berkeley ; the training of business executives by J. S. A . Bois, past president of
the Canadian Psychological Association ; the orientation work of Warren M .
Robbins in the high school social studies classes at Bremen Enclave High School
in Germany ; Wilbur E . Moore's work with speech students at the Central
Michigan College of Education ; the 1200 cases recorded in the files of Dr .
Charles B . Congdon during his appointment at the University of Chicago Stu-
dent Health Service ; the approach of Harry Holtzman, Editor of trans/forma-
: arts-communication-environment, to the consideration of art and human
tion
learning ; the consultation work in human communication of William Exton, Jr.,
in New York City .
That larger statement would include a survey of the courses in philosophy,
psychology, sociology, etc. in which aspects of the subject appear. It would say
something about the unpublished dissertations from Francis P . Chisholm's
Grammatical Structure in Linguistic Behavior at Syracuse in 1943 to Philip H .
Dutter's The General Semantics o f job Evaluation and Merit Rating at New
York University's Graduate School of Business Administration in 1951 . Ap-
proximately twelve studies at Denver, eight at Iowa, eight at Northwestern,
three at New York University would then be given more than statistical enumera-
tion . It would, in short, begin with and go on from the bibliography submitted
as a University of Kansas M .A . thesis in 1950 by Phillip Persky .

I T WOULD be necessary, too, to indicate that there have been some less than
sympathetic responses to the subject. Such a survey might start with H . L.
Mencken's dismissal and end with Margaret Schlauch's argument .

Of late the professors of semantics have divided into two factions . The
first, led by metaphysicians, lifts the elemental business of communicating
ideas to the level of a baffling and somewhat sinister arcanum standing
midway between the geometry of the fourth dimension and Freudian
rumble-bumble ; the other, led by popularizers, converts it into a club for
use upon the skulls of the enemies of the current New Deals 8 9
"° H . L . Mencken, The American Language, Supplement I (New York, 1945), foot-
note, p. 102 .

1 15


ETC. : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS VOL. nc, No. 2

The factors omitted by Korzybski cry aloud for recognition . Rarely,

and then in a most perfunctory manner, does he indicate the basic import-
ance of class conflicts and the rivalry of empires . Only the vaguest indica-
tions are made concerning eradicable concrete maladjustments in the ob-
jective world, such as unequal distribution of income, exportation of
capital to helpless "backward" countries, international trade competition,
and recurring crises and periods of unemployment, which are the causes
of insecurity leading to psychological ills . Exorcism seems the easier when
these problems are treated as primarily linguistic . We are invited to cure
them all by semantic exercises . 70

In between these, a statement of the critical case against the doctrines would
have to consider the frivolous caricature of McCue, 71 the conclusions of Flesch, 72
Goldberg, 73 Masserman 74 and Spigelman 78 on specific issues, the wide-ranging
attack of Dunham 76 and the carefully stated doubts of Muller 77 and Black . 78
It would not be enough to counter their reservations with more enthusiastic state-
ments . 79 They deserve serious point by point analysis in a mood unaffected by
the requirements of apologetics . The only comment I can justify here is this :
They deal, even if acceptable, with but a small portion of the totality that is the
discipline. The fragmentary character of the criticism of Korzybski, based on
what he (not what others) said, has been taken as a sign of his strength . It has
also been interpreted another way : Why bother?
Stimulated by these critiques our survey might point to significant lacunae
70 Margaret Schlauch, "Semantics as Social Evasion," Science and Society, VI (1942),
p . 321 .
" George S . McCue, "Salvation Through Semantics or Sacred Cow, Is Not Sacred
Cows" in University of Colorado Studies, Series B (October, 1945) .
"Rudolf Flesch, The Art of Readable Writing (New York, 1949) .
"Isaac Goldberg, The Wonder of Words (New York, 1938) .
"Jules H . Masserman, Principles of Dynamic Psychiatry (Philadelphia, 1946) .
7b Joseph H . Spigelman, "Can Science Make Sense," Harper's Magazine 202 (1951),
pp . 54-60 .
"Barrows, Dunham, Man Against Myth (Boston, 1947) .
"Herbert J. Muller, Science and Criticism (New Haven, 1943) .
"Max Black, Language and Philosophy (Ithaca, 1949) .
" "Despite all the reservations that I have felt constrained to make and of others
that might be made, I feel bound to say that this work [Science and Sanity], taken as a
whole is beyond all comparison the most momentous single contribution that has ever
been made to our knowledge and understanding of what is essential and distinctive in
the nature of Man ." Cassius Jackson Keyser, Mathematics as a Culture Clue (New York,
1947), p . 153 . "This [Manhood and Humanity] is a most refreshingly stimulating work,
and I am wondering why, in all these years, someone hasn't told me so. Had I read this
book earlier, it would have made a considerable difference to my own intellectual de-
velopment ; now it will very greatly help. I want to begin by urging all readers of this
JOURNAL to read this book . . . . It is very strange how little known Korzybski's ideas
are to anthropologists . I urge upon them the desirability of familiarizing themselves with
these ideas." M . F . Ashley Montague, Psychiatry, 14 (1951), pp. 251-252 .
116


WINTER 1952 GENERAL SEMANTICS

in the list of achievements . No department or professorship in general semantics

has been established in any college or university . No full-dress autobiography
or case-study of the use and effect of the subject on any person or group has yet
appeared . Individual or group procedures for the re-education of those who
want it have not yet been defined in ways comparable, for example, to those of
client-centered therapy . No validated test, pencil and paper, behavioral or clin-
ical, is now available by which to describe the varieties of misevaluation by sta-
tistical or other reliable objective means for either diagnostic or prognostic pur-
poses. No course of study with lesson plans and assignments for elementary or
high school classes has yet appeared, though Minteer 80 and Moore 81 have taken
some first steps . There are no studies as yet which suggest that some ways of
teaching the subject have deeper effects than others . I have elsewhere described
nine kinds of studies which should be made . 82

Conclusions and Predictions

I CONCLUDE with some personal observations . When I wrote my first piece

on general semantics in 1940 I felt the need of company . To be alone with
one's enthusiasms is hardly comforting . Many students in Korzybski's seminars
caught a gleam of his selflessness . (I remember the tuition was $30 . That was
part of the reason he died a poor man . And I know some who were impatient
at his refusal to try to exploit his findings .) I believe that the early effort "to
spread the word" stemmed from such feelings . But it aroused the resistance that
accompanies over-zealousness . Some of us did protest too much . I have no wish
to censure those who refused the promise of enlightenment thrust upon them .
In retrospect I can only marvel at the inappropriateness of the persuasive efforts .
What does general semantics mean to the teacher of Speech? I do not believe
that the rhetorical works of Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, et al. and the schemes
of rhetorical criticism growing therefrom will be displaced . I do believe that
some full-dress semantic analyses of great speeches and controversies will sup-
plement and complement what traditional studies reveal . I expect some clarifica-
tion of the problem of the ethics of persuasion . The methods of teaching public
speaking and persuasion now current in texts will be changed only in a different
emphasis on matters of content and preparation . I expect increased attention to
what speakers can do to prevent the many varieties of misunderstanding . An

"Catherine Minteer, A Teacher's Handbook for Experiment with Basic Lessons in

General Semantics at Elementary Level, mimeographed (Chicago, Nettlehorst School,
1951) .
' Robert H . Moore, General Semantics in the High-School English Program (Colum .
bus, 1945) .
Irving J . Lee, "On the Varieties of Research in General Semantics," ETC ., VII
(1950), pp . 170-179 .
117


ETC . : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS VOL . IX, NO . 2

approach to stagefright via the student's evaluation of his own evaluations may
be helpful . In argumentation and discussion, there may be some modification
of the treatments of evidence, definition, generalization and causation . I expect
some changes to come from a reexamination of the nature of verbal proof .
Existing debate procedure will not be replaced, but I believe additional modes
will center on techniques of agreement .83 Teachers of interpretation may find
that students gain insights from a differentiating study of the character of state-
ments, that "emotional" manifestations go with some better than others, that a
heightened awareness of the interpretation of human perception-thinking-feeling
may make the achievement of depth and spontaneity in reading a bit easier. The
clinical areas in speech may get help in the synthesis and reformulation of
divergent theories and some refinement in the clinician's tactics of listening and
diagnosis. I expect increased concern with listening skills for the prevention of
disagreements in discussion . This should carry over to classes in public speaking.
And I hope the next generation of apologists will be ready to scrap anything in
the discipline which is complicating or over-simplifying in itself or which leads
to such .

AM NOT at all unhappy about the relatively slow spread of interest in gen-
T eral semantics among teachers of Speech in comparison with what is happen-
ing, say, among teachers of English . Our established areas have tremendous
scope. How can anyone keep up with the output in the history of public address,
rhetoric, persuasion, discussion, debate, in my own field, for example? Our Ph .D .
candidates are unable to take all that is now available . Why should anyone with
an investment in study and research interrupt what he is doing to take on some-
thing else? I should not wish to add to anyone's burdens . Nor am I willing to
suggest that anyone substitute this subject for any he is now moved to include
in his program . I should now want to go only this far : if in your thinking about
any of the big ideas in rhetoric, etc . you reach an analytical impasse, you might
find an approach via the general semantics scheme suggestive ; if in your teach-
ing of any of the skills of speech you find any special resistance or blockage
which is not directly amenable to your available means, you might get some
clues from this point of view ; if you ever feel the need of testing your present
views about the nature and purpose of what you are doing, a look via the
extensional methodology might conceivably be helpful . This is worthwhile if
you agree with Whitehead that " . . . almost any idea which jogs you out of your
current abstractions may be better than nothing ." And should you reply that
you see no need for any of this, I should be quite willing to change the subject.
"Cf. Stuart Chase, Roads to Agreement (New York, 1951), Anatol Rapoport,
Science and the Goals of Man (New York, 1950), and S . I . Hayakawa, "New Tech-
niques of Agreement" in ETC., VIII (1950), pp. 3-12 .
118