The Politics of the Family by Laing R.D

Author:Laing, R.D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC000000
Publisher: House of Anansi Press
Published: 1997-09-26T16:00:00+00:00

BEYOND REPRESSION: RULES AND METARULES IV

The distinctions and the operations I was describing last week are pervasive. Generally, we are very aware of such distinctions, but not nearly so aware that we make them. The operations I described are usually not experienced at all. Yet with their help most of us flesh out a world of sorts. With great labour, a wish is

(i) denied

(ii) replaced by a fear that generates a nightmare that is

(iii) denied, and on which a

(iv) nice facade is then placed

(denial, replacement, denial, replacement) - a comparatively simple, four-step sequence.

Almost any operations are sanctioned if they help to serve up a “normal” product. It is difficult to behave sufficiently “normally” to get by, without using some such tricks. If one gives them up and still can’t get out of the social system that is largely built upon them, is perpetuated by them, and generates and perpetuates them in turn, one may still have to lie on a bed of nails. Difficult to pretend to enjoy it, once one has realized that it is not a bed of roses.

Not only are such operations permitted, they may be demanded. Projection and the denial of it is demanded. It is mandatory to project bad onto what is the Enemy whoever they may be: and it is mandatory to deny that this is projection.

One can lay out a projection map for the whole cosmos shaded or coloured, as to what regions we must or must not project what onto: a map for a map, as it were.

To take the simplest schema. Let us suppose each region is governed by a rule about good/bad. Suppose values for each region are set as (+) good, or (−) bad, (+ or −) optional, or neutral (neither + nor -).

There is said to be a time and place for everything. At home:

(1) one must not put mother’s pearl necklace down the w.c.

(2) one must put something down the w.c., and nowhere else

(3) one must not go to bed with one’s boots on

(4) one must brush one’s teeth before going to sleep

(5) one must not make bad smells at dinner table and so on. Such rules are liable to be rather exact, and stringent.

The rules governing what values the whole cosmos is to be endowed with are equally stringent.

There are times and places and people for

(1) + values (good)

(2) − values (bad)

(3) + or − values (optional)

(4) neither + nor − (o) value (neutral) (the stars must be regarded as neither good nor bad, if one is “normal”).

We can add an open fifth category for regions that one may regard as good (+), or bad (-), or optional (+ or -), or neutral (o). They are few. Can you think of any?

If there is perfect coincidence between the value we project and the value allotted to a range, everything is in its proper time and place. There is no infringement of the rules on this set of issues, and no need for guilt or anxiety on these grounds.

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