“We are on to something real and fundamental.” An interview with Richard E. Cytowic

Abstract

Richard E. Cytowic (MD) is a US-based neurologist and author. Dr Cytowic is rightfully considered to be a pioneering researcher of the phenomenon of synaesthesia. He has penned several publications, including the highly acclaimed books Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses (1989; 2nd ed., 2002), The Man Who Tasted Shapes (1993), and Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia (co-authored with David Eagleman) (2009). Regarding the initial rejection in the 1980s of the legitimacy and significance of studying the condition, the contemporary resurgence in synaesthesia research is primarily Dr Cytowic’s legacy. His scientific contribution is completed with educational projects. Synaesthesia has been the subject in Dr Cytowic’s media appearances that were featured in numerous TV shows and documentaries. At present, R. Cytowic is exceptionally prolific, giving lectures for the public, writing blogs and participating in art projects. We kindly asked Richard Cytowic to provide his opinion on several topics in today’s synaesthesia research. The answers that we received via email make up an interview that we have the honor to publish in this special issue of T&HS on synaesthesia. Do you consider synesthesia as varieties of a unitary condition or as multiple disparate phenomena? Why? This is a question I’ve asked myself since the beginning, in the late 1970s, when individuals with sensory couplings turned up with number forms as well (the latter now more precisely called spatial sequence synesthesia). I posed the question in the original series of forty-two individuals (see Table 1), even including a table, as I recall, of those with both synesthesia and number forms, and those with number forms alone. I was a lumper rather than a splitter because the two experiences felt qualitatively similar, and I left it with readers as an open question. (You THEORIA ET HISTORIA SCIENTIARUM, VOL. X Ed. Nico laus Copern icus Univers i ty 2013