Book

The Divided Self

Name: The Divided Self
ISBN: 9780140135374

An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness

R.D. Laing

Penguin Publishing Group · 1965-08-30

The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness

Psychology mental health modern

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Who It's For

Good for readers who enjoy Psychology / Psychopathology / Schizophrenia
Good for readers interested in psychology
Good for fans of Psychology

What You Get

Themes: Year, Health, Psychology.
Reading lane: Psychopathology and Movements.
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group.

About This Book

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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.