University of Southampton Research Repository ePrints Soton Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF LAW, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES School of Humanities Doris Lessing and R. D. Laing: Madness and the Matter of the Body by Kerry Sara Myler Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2010 Errata i ii UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF LAW, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES Doctor of Philosophy DORIS LESSING AND R. D. LAING: MADNESS AND THE MATTER OF THE BODY by Kerry Sara Myler With the publication of The Divided Self in 1960, R. D. Laing initiated the British ‘anti-psychiatry’ movement which was to challenge the hegemony of conventional medical and psychoanalytical models of madness during that decade and beyond. Anti-psychiatric thinking coincided with the beginning of the second wave of feminism and the two movements coalesced within a number of literary texts, most notably Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook. However, whilst Lessing appears to agree with Laing’s account of schizophrenia and, indeed, largely bases her own representations of madness on his understanding of that experience, her texts nevertheless struggle to fully realise the potential of his theories for women. With reference to The Golden Notebook and her later novels The Four-Gated City and Briefing for a Descent into Hell, I argue that Lessing’s fiction complicates Laing’s theories by demonstrating the significance of the sex/gender system, so conspicuously absent in his works, to women’s experiences of schizophrenia. Lessing’s ‘madness novels’ suggest that Laing’s ultimate aim to deconstruct the sanity/madness binary remains unrealised for the madwoman because of his inattention to that binary’s associative opposition: male/female. This thesis examines Lessing’s engagement with Laing and argues that any straightforward relationship between his theory and her fiction is complicated by the discourses of gendered embodiment he fails to account for but which continues to define and bind Lessing’s female characters. Using contemporary feminist body theory, I read the female body as a site of contention in and between Lessing’s and Laing’s texts and, finally, as (an) irresolvable ‘matter’ in anti-psychiatry’s understanding of the experience of madness. iii iv Contents Declaration of Authorship ............................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... ix Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Laing and Anti-Psychiatry ....................................................................................... 5 Lessing and Laing .................................................................................................. 15 The Matter of the Body .......................................................................................... 24 The Divided Self: A Feminist Study in Women and Madness ........................................ 37 The Golden Notebook (1962) ................................................................................. 39 Free Women and Psychoanalysis ........................................................................... 42 The Divided Woman .............................................................................................. 51 Minds and Bodies ................................................................................................... 63 Models of Madness ................................................................................................ 70 Madness and Sex/Gender Discourses .................................................................... 79 The Unembodied Self: The Female Body in Madness .................................................. 109 Minds from Bodies ............................................................................................... 111 Unembodied Selves .............................................................................................. 119 Unoccupied Bodies .............................................................................................. 128 Being-in-the-Body................................................................................................ 141 Bodily Matter(s) ................................................................................................... 146 ‘The Golden Notebook’ ....................................................................................... 153 Sanity, Madness and the Mother: Re-imagining Discourses of Madness ..................... 183 The Four-Gated City (1969) ................................................................................ 185 Madness Re-imagined .......................................................................................... 197 Madness and the Mother ...................................................................................... 209 Beyond Madness .................................................................................................. 233 Psychics and Psychotics ....................................................................................... 243 Beyond the Human ............................................................................................... 253 The Politics of Experience: The Sexual Politics of Madness ........................................ 271 Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971) ............................................................... 273 Madness and the Male Body ................................................................................ 287 Gendering the Inner Journey ................................................................................ 295 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 317 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 325 v vi Declaration of Authorship I, Kerry Myler declare that the thesis entitled Doris Lessing and R. D. Laing: Madness and the Matter of the Body and the work presented in the thesis are both my own, and have been generated by me as the result of my own original research. I confirm that: this work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University; where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated; where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed; where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work; I have acknowledged all main sources of help; where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself; none of this work has been published before submission Signed: ……………………………………………………………………….. Date:……………………………………………………………………………. vii viii Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the University of Southampton and Loughborough University for their generosity in together providing financial support for three years of doctoral study. I am thankful for the numerous contributions to conference costs awarded by the University of Southampton English Discipline Research Committee and the Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences during my period of candidature. I am also grateful to the Doris Lessing Society for providing me with the opportunity to present my research at the 2008 MLA Convention in San Francisco. I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Clare Hanson, who has been a constant source of inspiration, guidance and encouragement throughout my postgraduate studies. Her faith in my abilities has made this project achievable and I am honoured to have worked under her supervision. Prof. Hanson’s support has far exceeded that required by a supervisor and I am pleased to call her both a friend and mentor. I would also like to extend my thanks to my advisor, Dr. Nicky Marsh, and to all of the University of Southampton English Discipline colleagues who have assisted me in various capacities during my time at the University of Southampton, in particular Karen Seymour and Dr. Barry Sloan. My period of candidature has been greatly enhanced by virtue of being shared with a very special group of fellow postgraduates. My sincerest thanks go to Mandy Bloomfield, Catherine Edgecombe (and not just for the ‘final push’ biscuits), Ross Hair, Jesse Ransley,