Formation of the Five Senses from Fundamental Synesthesia

In this chapter, the process of how the Five Senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch) are generated from the undifferentiated fundamental synesthesia of infants, who cannot distinguish between external senses like vision and hearing and internal senses like touch and kinesthetic sensation, is explained through an analysis of passive synthesis (association and affection). The conscious perception of zero kinesthetic in infants occurs through the imitation of maternal babbling. During this process, the auditory perception of the mother’s babbling is paired with no accompanying kinesthetic sensation, understood through the Gestalt psychological concept of figure and ground, as the audible voice (figure) and the insensible zero kinesthetic (ground). In the case of babbling imitation, the relationship between auditory perception and kinesthetic sensation represents the figure–ground relationship. Starting from fundamental synesthesia, the boundaries between various senses are drawn through experiences of sensory fulfillment (figure) and non-fulfillment (ground), resulting in the differentiation of individual sensory area.