Experience Is Mad When It

The Dynamics And Structures Found In Those Groups Called Families In Our Society May Not Be Evident In Those Groups Called Families In Other Places And Times.

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.

From The Moment Of Birth, When The Stone-age Baby Confronts The Twentieth-century Mother, The Baby Is Subjected To These Forces Of Violence Called Love, As Its Father And Mother And Their Parents And Their Parents Before Them, Have Been. These Forces Are Mainly Concerned With Destroying Most Of Its Potential.

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.

Our 'normal' 'adjusted' State Is Too Often The Abdication Of Ecstasy, The Betrayal Of Our True Potentialities.