Name: The Divided Self
ISBN: 9780140207347

The Divided Self

First published in 1960, this watershed work aimed to make madness comprehensible, and in doing so revolutionized the way we perceive mental illness. Using case studies of patients he had worked with, psychiatrist R. D. Laing argued that psychosis is not a medical condition but an outcome of the 'divided self', or the tension between the two personas within us: one our authentic, private identity, and the other the false, 'sane' self that we present to the world.

What Hacker News says

mox111Jul 2023

"The Divided Self" by RD Laing is interesting on this

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nonrandomstringAug 2022

> To approach his work with the epistemological presumptions of the scientist or historian, necessarily precludes philosophical skepticism.

Yes, and that doesn't just exclude dyed-in-the-wool "scientists". Quite extremist forms of positivism prevalent today cast-out valuable works more widely. Certainly such works are filled with speculation, imagination, half-bakery, and emotional polemics, as has been the vernacular writing style for thousands of years. By scientific standards they are 90 percent rubbish. The baby lost in this bathwater is the ten percent of absolute genius that more patient, curious and open minds can digest and drive science forward at a different level.

Another difficult book that complements bicameralism, again by a discredited researcher R.D. Laing, is "The Divided Self" It approaches the experiential modularity of mind from a different perspective, a top-down descent into mental illness, namely schizophrenia. Laing's methods were, to say the least, controversial. Taken with J. Jaynes' bottom-up genealogical/developmental analysis Laing's is another piece of the jigsaw of the mind.

Moreover, it is interesting just how many psychologists and philosophers who challenge the "unified" individual hypothesis, Freud included, are deemed "discredited" in our milieu. Works like those of G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspenski, which roams into mysticism, seem entirely lost today. Surely the problem is this way of thinking conflicts with modernity and capitalism, whose atomic unit is the singular rational individual.

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pizzaAug 2019

Reading RD Laing was an important experience for me. I recommend the Divided Self, the Politics of Experience, and The Politics of the Family for others trying to work through their low points.

If you want a sense of what the guy was like, here's a short 3 min video titled "Forgetting Depression": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKOxp2q2lss

Another good interview with him here. Probably recommend this one more, it really contrasts his approach and humanity from typical orthodoxy of the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0ZvZAG_XRg

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pizzaMay 2018

The Divided Self by RD Laing

Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher

Pretty much any book by Nassim Taleb, but the Black Swan was my first read of his, and then Antifragile

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pizzaFeb 2018

The Divided Self + The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise + The Politics of the Family - all by RD Laing

Civilization and its Discontents - Freud

Capitalist Realism - Mark Fisher

Gateless Gate - Mu-men? Very old Chinese mystical text that somehow resonated w me considerably..

Neuromancer - William Gibson

Snowcrash - Neal Stephenson

Inherent Vice (currently reading and enjoying a lot! - loved the movie so much I got the book but I think I enjoy the book way more even) - Thomas Pynchon

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asdddddSep 2017

The Divided Self (R. D. Laing). Bit dense at times, and perhaps not relevant to many on HN, but a truly fascinating examination of the edges of sanity.

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