The Divided Self by R D Laing

The Divided Self by R D Laing

Dr. Laing's first purpose is to make madness and the process of going mad comprehensible. In this, with case studies of schizophrenic patients, he succeeds brilliantly, but he does more: through a vision of sanity and madness as 'degrees of conjunction and disjunction between two persons where the one is sane by common consent' he offers a rich existential analysis of personal alienation.

The outsider, estranged from himself and society, cannot experience either himself or others as 'real'. He invents a false self and with it he confronts both the outside world and his own despair. The disintegration of his real self keeps pace with the growing unreality of his false self until, in the extremes of schizophrenic breakdown, the whole personality disintegrates.

Laing was a psychiatrist from Scotland who wrote extensively about mental disease, particularly psychosis. Laing's views on the origins and treatment of major mental illness, which were informed by existential philosophy, went against psychiatric orthodoxy at the time by accepting the reported sentiments of the individual patient or client as genuine representations of lived experience rather than just as symptoms of a distinct or underlying condition. Laing went to Glasgow University to study medicine. In 1989, he passed away.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780140207347
ISBN 10	0140207341
Title	The Divided Self
Author	R D Laing
Series	Pelican S
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Penguin Books Ltd
Year published	1970-02-26
Number of pages	224
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.