|
 Given
this lack of alignment it is not inappropriate,
then, that Laing soon starts
over--"Anyway..."--with a disclaimer: "I don't know
anything about (.) you at all, ah, and I don't know
what (.) to ask you about yourself' (12). This open
invitation to talk is not accepted by Leila,
however, who just laughs, and Laing proceeds with a
series of questions increasingly narrow in scope.
Leila eventually responds by offering an account of
how "my brain don't work right" (30), an account
that includes mention of alternative medication
(Nux Vomica), confused words and letters, and her
paranoia--" And, eh, either I tend to be paranoid
or errr, they really are after me I don't
know which" (36). It is unclear what context we
should consider to be invoked here. In particular,
Leila displays here a lack of certainty about being
paranoid-a first display of an "ontological
insecurity" on her part that I will return to
shortly.
But
around line 50 the context stabilizes, as Leila
speaks of a "guru" she had "for a long time" (49).
Laing aligns with this topic: "What sort of guru is
this character? (55). We could call this context
"Eastern religion," or "mysticism" or "new age";
whatever label we give it, Laing and Leila display
their prior familiarity, to each other and to us,
viewers of the video tape. To pick a simple
illustration of this, Laing asks "What sort of
guru... ?" (55), not "what is a guru?" Leila
elaborates on her guru's teaching about "levels of
consciousness" and "the universal consciousness."
Strikingly, Laing doesn't display doubt about the
existence of any of this, let alone its relevance
to the topic at hand. Instead he challenges her
logic: "I don't see how you can be conscious of the
universal mind, the universal mind's conscious of
you but you're not conscious of it" (66).
Leila
struggles to formulate a reply to this challenge,
after an initial uncertain "How's that?" (69). I
won't consider the details of her reply, beyond
pointing out that Laing again aligns with her,
offering in line 77 a partial gloss of her
assertion, drawing out its implications in line 82,
and characterizing his own interest in the matters
under discussion in line 87: "Well are you trying
to, well, I mean, I've spent a lot of time trying
to work out eh, how that can, ah, be the case, if
it is the case. But, I haven't found any answer to
that (.) myself. But, eh I I still put a collar and
tie on under the circumstances. (.) Why not? Heh,
heh." We can see that Laing treats Leila here as an
equal participant in this portion of their
conversation, stepping into the context she invoked
in line 49 and thus accepting it as a common ground
upon which both he and she can position themselves,
and each other. If he is more forthcoming than we
would typically expect a therapist to be (See
Goldman, this
issue),
this has the consequence that both we and Leila can
see where he stands in this context: who he is. The
here-and-now has been enriched, and as a result
both we and they have a clearer understanding of
who both Laing and Leila are.
The
Reality of Conspiracy
The
topic of the universal mind is dropped when Laing
mentions the listening audience, and Leila is
nonplussed ("Are people listening to this?" 105)
and falls silent. Laing introduces a new topic,
asking:
|
|
115
|
T:
|
It
doesn't matter, it does ma um
[laughs] (2) How long
|
|
|
116
|
|
you
been in Phoenix, then?
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|
Rather
than casting doubt on the existence of the
conspiracy of which Leila speaks, perhaps
attributing it to paranoid fantasy, Laing
inquires further about it. He asks, "And
what conspiracy?" (120) and when Leila
dodges the question he asks her to make a
commitment to tell him:
|
|
|
124
|
T:
|
Well,
ah whether or not I'm a conspirator and
whether
|
|
|
125
|
|
or not
you are imagining it, are you prepared to
er eh ah
|
|
126
|
ah give
me your account of what that conspiracy
is?
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|
Leila
still equivocates--"well, I think a
conspiracy (.) doesn't exist..."
(129)--but Laing persists:
|
|
|
138
|
T:
|
Is it a
benign conspiracy or a malign conspiracy
is it?
|
|
Leila
actually then proceeds to suggest that the
conspiracy is a fantasy--"you see the mind creates
a whole lot of things…So it stands to
reason if I believe in a conspiracy, people are
going to act like conspirators"--and it is Laing
who counters by insisting that it is real!
|
|
180
|
T:
|
Well, I
mean, this whole set up is an enormous
|
|
|
181
|
|
conspiracy
and you're right in eh, right in the heart
of
|
|
182
|
the
conspiracy just now.
|
|
183
|
L:
|
Ump.
|
|
184
|
T:
|
So eh
if you haven't [laughs, coughs] if
you, if you if
|
|
185
|
you
came to Phoenix to get away from the
conspiracy,
|
|
186
|
you
haven't done very
well.[laughs]
|
|
Leila
asks, rather meekly, "You mean the
conference is a conspiracy?" 'Yah.
Course," Laing declares broadly. "What
kind of conspiracy?" she asks (191), and
"What do you know about it?" (205).
To understand what is going on here it is
helpful to jump ahead to the discussion
with the audience that follows the
demonstration. There, back at the podium,
talking about transpersonal reality, Laing
will declare, "There is a conspiracy.
There is a divine conspiracy which has
brought us together. There is a divine
conspiracy as well as a conspiracy of the
devil." And he speaks with sympathy of:
"those
people who find it very difficult to
live in the world of the interpersonal
and the intra-personal and can see how
stupid it all is, how ugly it all is,
how inexpressibly confused it all is.
And yet are just regarded as crazy and
mad for realizing that, and either
locked up or run away."
To
Leila, Laing at first jokingly implies
that the conspiracy is malign because it
will harm him if he describes it: "Well,
I've got a I've got a plane booked, eh, to
get to Boston Sunday, so I'm not going to
say what sorta conspiracy is because I
want to go on that plane in a, in good
order as far as I'm concerned" (193-195).
But then, in a more serious manner, he
says "No, I think it is quite a benign
conspiracy" (196). And he makes a
connection back to the prior topic: "I
think the universal mind is eh has been
asleep abit... it's sort itching a bit.
And it's sorta waking up abit and sorta
doin' something about it now (.) through
us" (206-210).
Why is this important? We noted earlier
that Leila displayed a lack of certainty
about being paranoid. We will find Leila
displaying this kind of uncertainty at
other moments, about other entities and
even herself: does the conspiracy exist?
Is she a Christian? Is she a good
daughter? I want to suggest that Leila is
displaying what Laing has called
"ontological insecurity." A person who is
ontologically secure will "have a sense of
his presence in the world as a real,
alive, whole, and, in a temporal sense, a
continuous person. As such he can live out
into the world and meet others: a world
and others experienced as equally real,
alive, whole, and continuous" (Laing,
1960/1990, p. 39). An individual lacking
this ontological security "cannot take the
realness, aliveness, autonomy, and
identity of himself and others for
granted" and as a result "has to become
absorbed in contriving ways of trying to
be real, of keeping himself or others
alive, of preserving his identity, in
efforts, as he will often put it, to
prevent himself losing his self” (pp.
42-43).
Laing has located the conspiracy in the
context of the conference, the
here-and-now. He grants the reality of the
conspiracy, about whose ontological status
Leila has displayed skepticism and
uncertainty. And the here-and-now context
becomes further enriched.
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