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Embodied ideas and divided selves: revisiting Laing via Bakhtin
1University of Bradford, Bradford, UK. burkitt@bradford.ac.uk
The British Journal of Social Psychology
|December 10, 2008
Summary
This study explores Mikhail Bakhtin
Area of Science:
- Philosophy of Mind
- Psychology
- Literary Theory
Background:
- Mikhail Bakhtin's theories offer a framework for understanding the divided self through social interactions and internal dialogues.
- R.D. Laing's work provides phenomenological accounts of fractured selfhood in psychosis, focusing on patients' lived experiences.
- Both authors explore the fragmentation of identity, but from distinct theoretical and empirical standpoints.
Purpose of the Study:
- To apply Bakhtin's 'divided self' model to R.D. Laing's descriptions of psychosis.
- To elucidate how Bakhtin's concepts of 'spirit/soul' and 'authoritative/internally persuasive discourse' illuminate Laing's patient accounts.
- To enrich Bakhtin's self-theory by examining it through Laing's phenomenological lens, exploring its implications for self-identity.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of Mikhail Bakhtin's theoretical framework on the self.
- Phenomenological examination of R.D. Laing's case studies on psychosis.
- Integration of Bakhtin's concepts (spirit/soul, discourse) with Laing's patient experiences and micro-dialogues.
Main Results:
- Bakhtin's divisions of the self provide a lens for understanding the fracturing of identity described by Laing.
- Laing's phenomenology deepens Bakhtin's model, revealing a potentially overwhelming openness of the self to ideas and their contradictions.
- The integrated model highlights the challenges in managing self-identity when the self is excessively open and struggles with internal contradictions.
Conclusions:
- The intersection of Bakhtin's and Laing's work offers a nuanced understanding of the divided self in psychosis.
- This interdisciplinary approach enriches both philosophical and psychological perspectives on selfhood and its potential fragmentation.
- The findings have implications for therapeutic approaches to managing self-identity dilemmas and the experience of psychosis.
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