The Divided Self
Book by Ronald David LaingWikipedia
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Search complete. 4 mentions across 4 episodes found for "The Divided Self".
Oct 13, 2026
Justin GarsonGUEST
... you know, o- uh, one of the anti-psychiatrists at the time.
Justin GarsonGUEST
And Laing's book, uh, The, The Divided Self and the Politics of Experience, and this was a very common kind of '60s idea.
Justin GarsonGUEST
Uh, hi- his view was that schizophrenia isn't so much a brain disorder.
Justin GarsonGUEST
It's more like the start of an inner journey of transformation.
Nick BarrHOST
This libidinal investment seemed a major threat to these patients, a threat derived from the fear that their love of the object would be devastatingly destructive to the object.
Nick BarrHOST
Yet the schizoid's fear is not only the fear of destroying the object, it is also one of losing oneself through an excessive love thirst, being engulfed through the intensity of dependency needs, as R.D. Laing has pointed out in 'The Divided Self.'" Clearly, "The Divided Self" is gonna be a, um, follow-up read here, uh, as I suppose will Fairbairn be.
Nick BarrHOST
What do we make of this section? Uh, I mean, we're really in kind of the analyst language here.
Nick BarrHOST
But I think the key piece is that, uh, when we start to go-- So, so we see detachment as a presenting characteristic.
Mia FunkHOST
What were the important things that he passed on to you? How did he open your mind to new ways of thinking?
Emmy van DeurzenGUEST
Well, he was an amazing person who wrote some amazing books, especially The Divided Self and The Politics of the Family and things like that, and who I think taught me to dare to believe that mental illness wasn't an illness but was something that was generated by human beings, by the way people were out of touch with themselves, the way in which-- I mean, I think he was a bit mistaken about families there, but there is also truth in it that families could really push you into a corner and make things hard for you.
Emmy van DeurzenGUEST
But obviously, there are also some biological reasons why some people have problems more than others.
Emmy van DeurzenGUEST
He had the courage to challenge the status quo and to show that if you sat in a room with somebody who apparently was psychotic, they actually would start to trust you if you acted in a normal therapeutic way and you paid attention to them.
Mia FunkHOST
What were the important things that he passed on to you? How did he open your mind to new ways of thinking?
Emmy van DeurzenGUEST
Well, he was an amazing person who wrote some amazing books, especially The Divided Self and The Politics of the Family and things like that.
Emmy van DeurzenGUEST
And who I think taught me to dare to believe that mental illness wasn't an illness, but was something that was generated by by human beings by the way people were out of touch with themselves the way in which I mean I think he was a bit mistaken about families there but there is also truth in it that families could really push you into a corner and make things hard for you But obviously, there are also some biological reasons why some people have problems more than others.
Emmy van DeurzenGUEST
He had the courage to challenge the status quo and to show that if you sat in a room with somebody who apparently was psychotic, they actually would start to trust you if you acted in a normal therapeutic way and you paid attention to them.