Westworld: What Does "The Bicameral Mind" Mean?

Westworld has often put clues and hints about upcoming events in very obvious spots: episode titles.

This week's episode is called "The Bicameral Mind" and refers to a popular psychological theory related to how a person thinks and acts. Bicameralism is the belief that the mind once had two separate cognitive parts: one that gave out orders and one that then obeys those orders.

Created by Julius Jaynes, bicameralism argues that ancient people were not truly conscious, but instead were driven by a portion of their brain that spoke to them and gave them orders. James' hypothesis was in part driven by an examination of ancient texts (such as the Old Testament or Homer's Iliad) that found no reference to self-reflection and heavily featured humans obeying the commands of external "gods" who commanded them to take certain actions.

Jaynes argued that humans eventually transitioned from a bicameral mind to true self-awareness when ancient civilizations collapsed and forced people to quickly adapt in order to survive in quickly changing situations. Bicameralism relied on structure to guide people through predictable sets of behavior. When that structure collapsed, people could not wait for a voice inside their head to tell them what to do.

Bicameralism not only explains the origins of religion, but also the root cause of schizophrenia. According to James's theory, people with schizophrenia have minds that operate similarly to how the bicameral mind functioned thousands of years ago. Bicameralism also explains why people are conditioned to look to an external authority figure to make decisions instead of taking the initiative themselves.

While the bicameral mind theory is a pretty complex (and somewhat confusing) theory, Westworld actually provides a very sold example of how it works. Arnold programmed the hosts to hear their programming commands as "voices" in their heads in order to stimulate true consciousness. It was Arnold's hope that eventually the hosts' mind would create that thought independently instead of relying on their own programming. Although Ford allegedly moved away from that programming feature, we saw that Dolores was (at least at one point) guided by Arnold's voice to go to Escalante in order to follow the maze.

If hosts once functioned with a bicameral mind, is it possible that they already shifted to a truly self-conscious way of thinking? After all, humans moved away from bicameralism after early civilizations collapsed, forcing them to adapt or perish. If the massacre at Escalante (the incident that Teddy keeps remembering with Wyatt, but seems to be related to Arnold's death at the hands of Dolores) represented a collapse of Westworld's "civilization", could the survivors actually have gained a sense of self-consiousness in order to survive?

Our current theory is this: Arnold staged his own death in an attempt to force his creations to come to life. If the hosts "heard" Arnold inside their heads, perhaps Arnold hoped that his very public death would cause the hosts to come alive, as they could no longer rely on his "voice" to tell them what to do. What's more, Arnold's plan actually worked, but Ford was able to keep the hosts contained using frequent memories wipes and periodically changing their roles within the park.

We'll find out what "The Bicameral Mind" means in tonight's big Westworld finale, which will run a whopping 90 minutes in order to give fans more answers to their big questions.

MORE WESTWORLD: 90-Minute Finale Will Have Answers / Arnold's Identity Revealed / Arnold's Killer Revealed / How The Man In Black Is Connected To Westworld / Who Is Arnold / The Man In Black's Backstory Revealed / What Planet Is Westworld On / Logos May Reveal Two Seperate Timelines

Westworld airs Sundays at 9 PM on HBO.