Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 2, June 1993 | Page 56

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Popular Culture Review

psychoanalytical and enlightenment thought patterns provide the
most complete explanatory model for the cultural role of olfaction.
The American psychoanalyst Ernest Schachtel adds a further
complement to Freud's concept, addressing the fact that olfactory
verbal expression is so limited. He points out that while the first
years of childhood are extremely rich in experiences, they are poor in
terms of language, which, after all, we are only learning during that
time.
And in the process of language acquisition, we are
imperceptibly pushed into the straitjacket of words, terms,
expressions, concepts, the limited, in fact inadequate, set of verbal
means available for the stunning wealth of a child's day-to-day
discoveries. The forces of convention and confoimity inherent in and