The concept of meaning: The key to clarify the human cognition and psychopathology

Meaning is a concept which is discussed everywhere. Besides being a common word, it is relevant for cognitive and linguistic studies. Nevertheless, translation problems and the specific definition of similar concepts by different disciplines hamper the discussion. In this paper, the authors discard some popular ideas about meaning (as being an image, an object or the relationship between signs), and highlights its relation with intentions, and the new concept of “embodied meaning”. Following a suggestion by Timothy Crow, who studied schizophrenia and brain lateralization, the authors conclude that the right hemisphere (in right handed people) processes intentions and meanings, whereas the left hemisphere processes the signifier part of signs, including words, and their relationship to each other (the sense). This vision can elucidate some problems of Psychopathology and Philosophy of Mind.