Biography divided laing r d self summary

Imagine you’re a therapist and have just had a “eureka moment” about one of your patients. You excitedly share your analysis, and expect them to be ecstatic that someone finally understands them. Instead, they simply look at you aghast and refuse to meet with you again. What happened?

When another person gets too close, ontologically insecure people fear they’ll be engulfed by them. Their insecurities are so severe that they can only feel like an autonomous personality if there are significant differences between themselves and others.

When others get too close, ontologically insecure people feel that the distinctions between themselves and others dissolve to nothing. Consider your hypothetical patient: If you are able to understand them, then they can’t be sure that they’re actually a discrete person, separate from you. For them, it feels as if you have both merged into one, like adjacent puddles of water.

Similarly, approaching an ontologically insecure person with love or concern can threaten their sense of self.

Ontologically insecure people are typically unaware of many of their own feelings and sensations. If we show love or concern for them, then we might be expressing stronger feelings for them than they feel for themselves.  

In these cases, ontologically insecure people might wonder whether they belong to someone else. Maybe they’re the other person’s property, or perhaps their identity and agency have been stolen.

As an example, imagine you’ve found your insecure neighbor outside covered in blood. Strangely, they appear unconcerned about their wounds. You, on the other hand, are shocked and do your best to aid them.

Your insecure neighbor will note how much more worried you are about their body than they are. This gets them thinking, “Maybe my body doesn’t belong to me! Maybe it belongs to my neighbor, which is why

Contrary to the traditional way in which the mentally ill was seen as an Other to be decoded, objectively analysed and measured, the phenomenological framework which Laing lays out gives great importance to listening to the mentally ill. In this article, we will take the example of the schizoid type to showcase how R. D. Laing approached mental illness.

The understanding of the schizoid person starts with the introduction of the notion of ontological insecurity. Laing asserts that whilst some people have a grounded sense of self which persists through their experiences, others might feel disconnected from themselves, disconnected from their body and unable to experience temporal continuity. People with ontological insecurity have their sense of identity threatened by events most of us would call mundane. This is how psychosis develops.

R. D. Laing’s Categorization of Three Forms of Identity Loss

R. D. Laing distinguishes between three forms of identity loss. The first is Engulfment. Engulfment is the dread of being related to, seen, understood, exposed, even loved; in short, the feeling of being comprehended by another.

As a reaction to this fear of Engulfment the individual might isolate himself from others and himself, create distance or might purposefully obstruct and fend off any possibilities of being understood. This fact also explains the often-met resistance that psychiatrists receive from certain patients and the negative reaction the patients have when the psychiatrist or psychologist understands something about them which they didn’t mean to expose.

Another form is that of Implosion, where the patient seeks to desperately preserve their identity as nothingness. Every contact with reality, with a specific form o

In his short life the Scottish psychiatrist Ronald (“Ronnie”) Laing progressed from iconoclast to guru and mystic. The Divided Self was written at the beginning of this journey, when he was only 30. He went on to write other books in which he expressed some of the main tenets of the anti-psychiatry movement, including the belief that madness can be a useful interpersonal strategy or even a healing process rather than an illness—but this first book, published in 1960, is probably his best.

In it he describes with empathy some of his patients and concludes that those who developed schizophrenia did so because of disturbed family relationships. Although he followed Freud in regarding schizophrenia as a disorder of ego identity, his book made schizophrenic symptoms—often regarded as incomprehensible—seem understandable for the first time within the family context. Some people who read The Divided Self became psychiatrists as a result, and the book had a considerable influence on the culture of the 1960s and 1970s (think of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, for example).

The contents of The Divided Self can be summarised briefly. Abnormal family relationships can in some cases result in the development in the child of “ontological insecurity,” a schizoid personality, and, eventually, frank psychosis, usually in adolescence or later. The “self” of the child cuts itself off from other people and starts to relate only to itself so that it can maintain its identity and protect itself from external danger. The self comes to hate the world but also feels guilty because it thinks it does not deserve to be alive. The self may then attempt to destroy itself—or may split and then relate only to its false self (the self that complies emptily with the world). In psychosis the self can disintegrate into several parts or subsystems, which persecute what is left of the real self. In the end the self may no longer exist at all, but only what one patient poetically desc

Chapter 4: The Embodied and Unembodied SelfOverview of Ontological Insecurity - The chapter discusses anxieties stemming from ontological insecurity, emphasizing how these fears manifest in individuals lacking a secure sense of self. - A secure person does not experience these anxieties as intensely, while an ontologically insecure person develops a divided relationship with themselves, often feeling a split between their mind and body. Contrasting the Embodied and Unembodied Self - Embodied Self: - Individuals with a strong sense of embodiment feel connected to their physical existence and perceive themselves as real and substantial. They view their bodies as the foundation of their identity, experiencing a sense of continuity and facing the existential threats that come with being in a body (e.g., injury, decay). - However, they can still suffer from internal divisions despite feeling embodied, facing anxieties related to their bodily desires and actions. - Unembodied Self: - This self experiences a detachment from the body, viewing it as an external object rather than integral to their identity. The unembodied self interacts with the world primarily through mental faculties, leading to hyper-awareness and a focus on observation and control. - Such individuals struggle with participation in life and may develop complex relationships with their bodily existence, often leading to feelings of disconnection and despair. Case Study: David - David represents a typical borderline case of the unembodied self, characterized by eccentric behavior, reliance on impersonation, and a deep disconnection between his true self and his outward personality. - His mother's death left him feeling detached from his genuine self, leading him to adopt roles and acts that masked his vulnerabilities. - David's struggle reflects a broader theme of the masked self, where an individual’s "false self" acts independently of their true self, which can lead to a debilitating sense