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R. D. Laing

R. D. Laing Quotes

Psychiatrist

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Famous R. D. Laing Quotes

“Before one goes through the gate one may not be aware there is a gate One may think there is a gate to go through and look a long time for it without finding it One may find it and it may not open If it opens one may be through it As one goes through it one sees that the gate one went through was the self that went through it no one went through a gate there was no gate to go through no one ever found a gate no one ever realized there was never a gate”

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Book:Knots
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“Our capacity to think, except in the service of what we are dangerously deluded in supposing is our self-interest and in conformity with common sense, is pitifully limited: our capacity even to see, hear, touch, taste and smell is so shrouded in veils of mystification that an intensive discipline of unlearning is necessary for anyone before one can begin to experience the world afresh, with innocence, truth and love.”

ThinkingWorldSelfInterestCommonDisciplineTasteCapacityAnd LoveSmellCommon SenseInnocenceConformityVeilsSelf InterestDeludedSupposingTruth And LoveTaste And Smell
Book:The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise
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“In a world full of danger, to be a potentially seeable object is to be constantly exposed to danger. Self-consciousness, then, may be the apprehensive awareness of oneself as potentially exposed to danger by the simple fact of being visible to others. The obvious defence against such a danger is to make oneself invisible in one way or another.”

WorldWayMaySelfFactsSimpleConsciousnessAwarenessDangerObjectsOneselfObviousInvisibleOne WayVisibleExposedDefenceSelf Consciousness
Author:R. D. Laing
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“The individual in the ordinary circumstances of living may feel more unreal than real; in a literal sense, more dead than alive; precariously differentiated from the rest of the world, so that his identity and autonomy are always in question.... He may not possess an over-riding sense of personal consistency or cohesiveness. He may feel more insubstantial than substantial, and unable to assume that the stuff he is made of is genuine, good, valuable. And he may feel his self as partially divorced from his body.”

WorldFeelsMayMadeRealSelfBodyIndividualStuffAliveIdentityCircumstancesOrdinaryAssumingIndividualityValuableGenuineRidingConsistencyAutonomyDivorcedLiteralUnrealCohesiveness
Author:R. D. Laing
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