Name: Knots
ISBN: 9780140033502

Ronald David Laing

Knots

R. D. Laing

Gavin

Wildcard psychologist writes meh tongue-twisters about the horror of recursivity.
“JACK: Forgive me.
JILL: No.
JACK: I’ll never forgive you for not forgiving me.” 

His point’s that conflict escalates because we forget the original contention and argue about the argument instead. Which is neat if not exhaustive. His logic’s more sophisticated than I expected – “Jack sees / that there is something Jill can’t see and Jack sees / that Jill can’t see she can’t see it. // Although Jack can see Jill can’t see she can’t see it / he can’t see that he can’t see it himself.” – but repetition kills the wit. 

(Laing is on my list of Very Harmful But Oddly Lionized People - see also Cesar Chavez, Henry Kissinger, Mother Teresa, Frida Kahlo, Leon Trotsky, Zhou Enlai - but he has nothing on Freud in that regard.)

Knots

Reviews