Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
The Divided Self
by
R.D. Laing
In The Divided Self (1960), Laing contrasted the experience of the "ontologically secure" person with that of a person who "cannot take the realness, aliveness, autonomy and identity of himself and others for granted" and who consequently contrives strategies to avoid "losing his self". Laing explains how we all exist in the world as beings, defined by others who carry a m...more
Mass Market Paperback, 218 pages
Published
August 30th 1970
by Pelican/Penguin Books Ltd
(first published 1960)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
Jul 21, 2011
Erik Graff
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
wanna-be psychotherapists
Recommended to Erik by:
no one
Shelves:
psychology
My draft board office having been fortuitously immolated, I was able to return to Grinnell College in the fall of '72. The year out of school had been fruitful in that the time to read freely led to new interests in philosophy, psychology and religion--to, in other words, consideration of the inner life. I had left college as an history major. I returned to college wanting to major in psychology.
Grinnell's Psychology Department, however, did not offer much of what I was interested in. Their orie...more
Grinnell's Psychology Department, however, did not offer much of what I was interested in. Their orie...more
1 like · like · see review
view all 4 comments
In keeping with my current excursion into the world of abnormal psych, I've just attempted 60 pages of this classic. I think R.D. Laing's main point - that madness is vastly misunderstood and therefore mistreated - is absolutely true, but I found that this book uses as much depersonalizing language as the psychiatrists the author criticizes. I found it very hard reading in spots, and my public library wouldn't let me renew it because it was so overdue. The real test of how dedicated I am to the...more
The Divided Self is a fairly good and short phenomenological/existential description of schizoid/schizophrenic being-in-the-world. In other words, instead of trying to find a strictly biological or psychoanalytical causal explanation of madness, Laing, drawing from Binswanger, Merleau-Ponty, and Heidegger, tries to describe how the schizoid/schizophrenic person sees and interprets her/his world. For this reason, the book deals much less with alleged causes of madness and more with the healthy an...more
After a second, or third read (I can't remember), I still consider this the best phenomenological psychology I've ever read.
The case studies showed a combination of empathy and rationality that I find rarely in any written works about people. His studies of Joan, and of Julie, which conclude the book, are tough for me to read without raising strong emotions.
Speaking as a student of philosophy, though, Laing's early work is best when he speculates, and phenomenological speculation may be one of t
...more
Me: OMG this book is diagnosing all my problems!!!!1!11
Husband: Then why is it so small?
He was being funny, but he was also making a valid point. The explanation is that this book gets at the root cause of so many things...
The psychology classes I took in college were such awkward mashups of psychoanalysis and behaviorism, at once oversimplifications and obfuscations. If I'd known psychology could be like this, I might have majored in it.
The philosophy classes I took in college were more about t...more
Husband: Then why is it so small?
He was being funny, but he was also making a valid point. The explanation is that this book gets at the root cause of so many things...
The psychology classes I took in college were such awkward mashups of psychoanalysis and behaviorism, at once oversimplifications and obfuscations. If I'd known psychology could be like this, I might have majored in it.
The philosophy classes I took in college were more about t...more
3 likes · like · see review
One cannot go too long in this life without meeting people who have more or less lost their humanity (try saying "Hello!" to everyone you meet today on the street; you will invariably be met with not a few mute lips and stone-faced grimaces!). This is called alienation, and schizophrenia is the psychological term for it. I like to call it the Madonna-syndrome, because the primary symptom is not identifying with what one projects oneself to be. Hence, schizophrenics are everything in fantasy beca...more
3 likes · like · see review
Though regarded as a classic,the academic prose from 1959 will probably stymie the efforts of all but the most ardent pop psychology readers of today,but the books treatment of the symptoms of the most prevalent of mental diseases is more relevant than ever,as the need to construct false-selves[which are the major cause of schizophrenia] to interact with external reality becomes more and more necessary.
The book contains several interesting case histories that illustrate the foundations of the...more
The book contains several interesting case histories that illustrate the foundations of the...more
Mar 15, 2010
Joel Mccoy
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Joel by:
Amanda Cosmos
Shelves:
psych-et-c
I'm a big fan of Laing's earlier to mid-career works, and this book has grounded cases which allow an easier understanding than the almost purely abstract suppositions in other works of his (e.g. The Politics of Experience, Self and Others) on related topics.
Laing's willingness (and expressed need) to engage schizoid/schizophrenics on their own terms and without treating them as afflicted by an irreparable pathology was incredibly novel at time of publication, and seems still a terribly under-ut...more
Laing's willingness (and expressed need) to engage schizoid/schizophrenics on their own terms and without treating them as afflicted by an irreparable pathology was incredibly novel at time of publication, and seems still a terribly under-ut...more
The schizoid and schizophrenic experience is tracked in this existential text from 1959. The style is informal, and for the most part is a work of phenomenological theory that covers the dynamics of interpersonal exchange, the schizoid neurotic situation, and the sane but problematic developments of an autonomous "false self". Much of the theorising seems convoluted, tautological, and required the ideas of others for me to find structure and sense... however, the inclusion of the case studies of...more
Well, I couldn't agree more in his view on how to treat mental illness. He must have been quite an amazing character and psychiatrist, often having his patient's living at his house, giving them back what had always been theirs, -their right to pursue happiness and life as everyone else.
Aside from that... this is the most incredible little book on how it is to experience insanity I have ever read, not to witness it, but experience it. I read it in two days, because I couldn't let go of the exper...more
Aside from that... this is the most incredible little book on how it is to experience insanity I have ever read, not to witness it, but experience it. I read it in two days, because I couldn't let go of the exper...more
Have finally made it through this after years of reading other people's interpretations of it. It's his earliest work on the subject of the development and existential meanings of psychosis so I need to read the later stuff too. I think some of it was pretty convoluted and touched by the mans own personal hurts and human issues. However, the first half of this book in particular, where Laing describes very plainly all the problems that medically based psychiatry has with establishing respectful...more
I've long thought that certain kinds of madness are not as inexplicable to the observer as they are to the experiencer and that if an observer could follow closely they would be in a better position to help the experiencer and that the biggest obstacle to that is that the experiencer does not want to be followed and the extent to which the experiencer wants to be followed is the extent to which they will be willing to return with the observer to more explicable territory.
R.D. Laing does a fair a...more
R.D. Laing does a fair a...more
Giving it 4* rather than 5* may seem a tad harsh when you read what I'm going to say, but it makes sense to me when you consider the evolution of theory and practice since this was written, and the differences in language inherent of such changes. And I like to think I'd know something of this, working in the trade.
There have been some mind-melting sections, some mind-bending sections and then there have been some enlightening and well crafted sections.
I've enjoyed reading every page - even the...more
There have been some mind-melting sections, some mind-bending sections and then there have been some enlightening and well crafted sections.
I've enjoyed reading every page - even the...more
You always get the best insights from the people who have actually experienced the disorders. R D Laing has been on both sides of the therapist's couch, so to speak. This is one of the best, most insightful psychology books I have read, certainly the best account of what schizophrenia is actually like. I assume. I wouldn't really know, so I'm trusting Liang to know his stuff.
Anyway yeah, I'm excited to write my essay now because of this book. Still a little intimidated by the topic (how does on...more
Anyway yeah, I'm excited to write my essay now because of this book. Still a little intimidated by the topic (how does on...more
What did I leave with after reading this book is the question I asked myself so that I could review it for future readers. The mind is very intricate and the line is fine between madness and sanity. Who is best at understanding a person that dangles from a thread? Since the book is short I will probably return to this book from time to time to read chapters separately. I watched the movie "A Beautiful Mind" while reading this book. Is it possible to will yourself into completeness without taking...more
Just by reading this book closely, I can gather that perhaps Laing was not speaking of the condition itself, 'Schizophrenia', but as a paradigm. He may have tried to express conditions that were seen as schizophrenic, but currently are considered autistic. I go further to state that The Divided Self is something anyone, anyone who is centrally human can relate to and grasp. By nature of his respect for his patients (not cases), he expresses their concerns, fears and behaviors, to be entirely hum...more
As a student of psychology, it i easy(eier) to read the literature and be somewhat dispassionate about it. This book proves the exception to that rule! Probably the most insightful, provocative read into what could be termed "the inception of schizophrenia (hence the title), that anyone has yet recorded!
Incredible! Sometimes, painfully so!
BjR
Incredible! Sometimes, painfully so!
BjR
Utterly amazing. Read this many years ago while at university and it helped change my perception of psychiatry and psychology. It changed my whole perception of what mental illness was and how it is such a thin Line between us 'normal' people and those with a diagnosis.
Sep 20, 2012
Pippa222
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
psychology,
madness-trauma
I found this utterly fascinating, but still need to do some reading about how Laing is viewed now. I felt it was the beginning of a better approach where the patient's inner landscape was explored.
I am not a fan of psychology, but I felt that this was a very human and humane treatment of mental illness. Illuminating in its understanding and sensitivity.
psychological implications of the Sartrean gaze - examining the patient as a person rather than a pathology - and NOT the person BEHIND the pathology, the person AS/IN the pathology
I really enjoyed this book. I read many books like this in the 1980's which prompted me to study their work and work in mental health initially
if you really want to understand schizophrenia, this is one of the best books on the subject that i've read.
Por fin lo he terminado. Me he encontrado en cada una de sus páginas, creo que aún lo digiero...
A terrifying book that arrests development on schizoid symptoms, and partial schizophrenia.
read a lot of RD Laing in the late sixties/early seventies. Not sure if I'd bother now.
A great little introduction to psychiatric disorders, including case studies.
"Psychotherapy is an activity in which that aspect of a patient's being, his relatedness to others, is used for therapeutic ends. The therapist acts on the principle that, since relatedness is potentially present in everyone, then he may not be wasting his time in sitting for hours with a silent catatonic who gives every evidence that he does not recognize his existence."
Very good book on schizophrenia.
interesting.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Ronald David Laing was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illness – in particular, the subjective experience of psychosis. Laing's views on the causes and treatment of serious mental dysfunction, greatly influenced by existential philosophy, ran counter to the psychiatric orthodoxy of the day by taking the expressed feelings of the individual patient or client as valid descrip...more
More about R.D. Laing...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“In a world full of danger, to be a potentially seeable object is to be constantly exposed to danger. Self-consciousness, then, may be the apprehensive awareness of oneself as potentially exposed to danger by the simple fact of being visible to others. The obvious defence against such a danger is to make oneself invisible in one way or another.”
—
15 people liked it
More quotes…
