The Kekulé Problem – Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy uses August Kekulé’s dream of a snake biting its tail to ask why the unconscious mind presents solutions as images instead of stating them plainly. He defines the unconscious biologically as the system that operates an animal, handling countless tasks and solving problems - including mathematical ones - without conscious access to how it works. Language, he argues, is not the medium of thought: people can speak without composing each sentence consciously, and the unconscious can arrive at answers without words or numbers. Dreams and recurring images may be ways this inaccessible system tries to communicate with consciousness.

McCarthy challenges the idea that language gradually evolved like a biological capacity such as vision. Animal alarm calls convey useful distinctions, but language’s defining power is symbolic: one thing can stand for another. He argues that language appeared once, in humans, spread rapidly, and encountered brains not specifically prepared for it. Its spread resembles a parasitic invasion more than ordinary Darwinian adaptation; the anatomical changes that support speech also carry costs, including greater vulnerability to choking. This account raises questions about how language originated, how acquired ideas relate to evolution, and how the unconscious works. McCarthy’s central tension is between an ancient animal mind that manages life and a newer, uniquely human capacity for expressive language - one the unconscious can understand, yet seems reluctant to use directly.