In Death Instinct and Knowledge, with the discovery of the disappearance fantasy, Massimo Fagioli theorised the origin of thought at birth and of language during the firstyear of life, tracing their development back to the creation of internal images. Some crucial conceptualisations contained in the book are of particular linguistic interest, as they could be considered the basis of a new theory of language:
• The “No” and the creation of the verbal symbol
• The creation of verbal thought
• Communication as the transformation of images into words and words intoimages, related to intuition
• The human tendency toward equality that leads to organisation into groupassociations based on the languageThese four concepts not only contain many of the theoretical developments on verbalthought and language pursued by Fagioli in the following decades, but could also representvital stimuli for new linguistic research stemming from the Human Birth Theory.
Bibliography
- Fagioli, M. (2017). Istinto di morte e conoscenza (XIV ed.). Roma: L’Asino d’oro edizioni.
- Fagioli, M. (2019). Death instinct and knowledge. Roma: L’Asino d’oro edizioni.
