false-self-system

A psychological construct describing how insecure individuals create a façade to cope with anxiety and despair, central to Laing's analysis of madness.

3 chapters across 1 book

The Divided Self (1960)R. D. Laing

Preamble

The 'Preamble' chapter of R. D. Laing's 'The Divided Self' introduces the book's aim to make madness, particularly schizoid and schizophrenic conditions, comprehensible through an existential and phenomenological lens. Laing emphasizes the experience of individuals estranged from themselves and society, developing a 'false self' as a coping mechanism, and situates his work as distinct from but indebted to existential philosophy and psychoanalysis. The chapter also outlines the scope and limitations of the study, acknowledging clinical observations and intellectual influences while clarifying what the book does not attempt to do.

CHAPTER VI The false-self system 1 The ‘inner self’ is occupied in phantasy and in observation. It observes the processes of perception and action. Experience does not impinge (or at any rate this is the intention) directly on this self, and the individual’s acts are not self-expressions. Direct relationships with the world are the province of a false-self system. It is the characteristics of this system that must now be examined. One must be clear that the description of the false-self system given below is intended to relate specifically to the problem of the particular schizoid mode of being-in-the-world under discussion. Every man is involved personally in whether or to what extent he is being true to his true nature’. In clinical practice, the hysterical and the hypomanic person, for instance, have their own ways of not being themselves. The false-self system to be described here exists as the complement of an ‘inner’ self which is occupied in maintaining its identity and freedom by being transcendent, The false self is one way of not being oneself. The following are a few of the more important studies within the existentialist tradition relevant to the understanding of the false self, as one way of living inauthentically: Kierkegaard, The sickness unto death (1954); Heidegger, Sein und Zeit (1953); Sartre’s discussion on ‘bad faith’ in Being and nothingness (i95<5) ; Binswanger, Drei Formen missgluckten Daseins (1952) and ‘The Case of Ellen West (1958); and Roland Kuhn, La Phenomenologie da masque (1957). Within the psycho¬ analytic tradition the following are among the most relevant studies: Deutsch, ‘Some forms of emotional disturbances and their relationship to schizophrenia’ (1942); Fairbairn, Psychoanalytic studies of the personality (1952); Guntrip, ‘A study of Fairbairn’s theory of schizoid reactions’ (1952); Winnicott, Collected papers (1958) (passim); Wolberg, ‘The borderline” patient’ (1952); and Wolf in Schizophrenia in psychoanalytic office practice (PP- 135-9. 1957)- IOO

This chapter explores the concept of the false-self system, particularly in the schizoid mode of being, where the 'inner self' remains detached and unexpressed while the false self engages with the world through compliance and impersonation. The false self is characterized by alienation, compulsive compliance to others' expectations, and a lack of authentic self-expression, contrasting with the more adaptive false selves seen in normal or hysterical individuals. The chapter draws on existentialist and psychoanalytic traditions to contextualize the false self as a way of living inauthentically and preserving an inner self that remains transcendent and ungraspable.

CHAPTER IX Psychotic developments ‘Thingsfall apart, the centre cannot hold, Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.’ w. B. YEATS Already, especially in the cases of David and Peter, we have con¬ sidered schizoid manifestations that have come perilously close to frank psychosis. In this chapter, we shall study some of the ways of crossing the borderline into a psychotic condition. Here, it is, of course, not always possible to make sharp distinctions between sanity and insanity, between the sane schizoid individual and the psychotic. Sometimes the onset of psychosis is so dramatic and abrupt, and its manifestations are so unequivocal, that there can be no question or doubt about the diagnosis. However, in many cases there is no such sudden apparently qualitative change, but a tran¬ sition extending over years, at no single point in which may it be at all clear whether any critical point has been passed. In order to understand the nature of the transition from sanity to insanity when the point of departure is the particular form of a schizoid existential position described in the foregoing pages, it is necessary to consider the psychotic possibilities that arise out of this particular existential context. In this position, we stated that the self, in order to develop and sustain its identity and autonomy, and in order to be safe from the persistent threat and danger from the world, has cut itself off from direct relatedness with others, 147

This chapter explores the gradual and often ambiguous transition from schizoid states to full psychosis, emphasizing the difficulty in distinguishing sanity from insanity. It describes how the self, in an effort to protect its identity, isolates itself from direct relationships with others, relying on a false-self system that ultimately leads to a loss of contact with reality, fragmentation, and psychotic developments. The chapter uses clinical examples, such as James, to illustrate how this withdrawal results in a phantasticized, unreal self that becomes increasingly isolated, impoverished, and tormented by anxiety.