The Divided Self
Laing, R. D.
£48.00
The Divided Self
An Existential Study In Sanity And Madness
By R. D. Laing
Ronald David Laing’s groundbreaking work. The present book is a study of schizoid and schizophrenic persons; its basic purpose is to make madness, and the process of going mad, comprehensible.
Second edition published in London by Tavistock Publications Ltd, 1969 (first published in 1960). Reprint. Hardback with dust jacket. 8vo, 8 ¾” x 5 ¾” (22.5cm H x 14.5cm W). 237pp. Footnotes. Preface, References & Index. Black boards with silver titles to the spine. Ex-Oxford Brookes University Library (‘Withdrawn’). Dust jacket under heavy duty pvc protector.
Book condition: Used. Very Good. Library stamp (faint) to the outer page edges; Library renewal form (Oxford Brookes University – Harcourt Hill Library) on the endpapers (front & back); Earlier library stamp (Oxford Polytechnic Library) on the publisher’s page; No further stamps or library paraphernalia; Pages clean & bright – no inscriptions, annotations or tears; Textblock tight. Dustjacket under heavy duty pvc protector; Label over the price – not clipped.
A very good copy of a fascinating book.
“This is an original and unsusual work, whose purpose is to make madness, and the process of going mad, comprehensible to many who have no direct experience of this phenomenon, and to offer new insights to many who, either in the professional or the personal context are familiar with it. The book is unusual also in that it examines certain forms of madness within an existential frame of reference. It is concerned to convey understanding of a type of modern man who is an ‘outsider’, estranged equally from himself and society, and unable to experience himself and other persons as being real and substantial. An individual so basically insecure develops a ‘false’ self with which to confront his world in order to achieve some formula for living with his anxiety and despair. This process may lead on to the gradual disintegration of the whole personality, and the author traces it through in the lives of a number of schizoid and schizophrenic individuals. His moving account of Julie, who described herself as ‘the ghost of the weed garden’, combines acute clinical observations with a sensitive awareness of the poignant situation of the chronic psychotic.
Dr Laing’s approach utilizes man of the insights of psychoanalysis while rejecting certain of the rigidities in its theory; it also owes much to the existential and phenomenological traditions, without being a direct application of any existing system.
In developing a synthesis between these two streams of thought, and in presenting his material in language that is clear, vivid and considered, yet free from jargon, the author offers a major contribution to the literature of the psychosis. The book will be of concern to the psychiatrist, the theologian, the philosopher, the poet, and indeed anyone who is concerned to achieve and understanding of the human predicament.”