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2-4pm (no preparatory reading necessary)

For the second reading group session + discussion lead by Jo Harrison at Almanac, the central focus will be inspired by the current Sam Tierney exhibition, 'Prophet's Constipation', and consider the idea of narcissism.

This session will review extracts taken from the chapter on 'Self-Consciousness' by R.D. Laing in 'The Divided Self' (1955) and Anthony Gidden's 'Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age' (1991). These writings provoke questions about how we experience the self, particularly in the face of various challenging external conditions such as existing within a consumer-focussed, hyper-mediated, individualistic environment, as well as considering approaches to and feelings on madness and mental health.

Whilst the exhibition explores 'modes of reflexive escape' and the disappearance of oneself, this reading group discussion will extend this by asking questions about how we see ourselves in the world and how we want to be seen, and considering the difference between self-love and selfishness: if we don't have the capacity for self-love, do we disappear?

Giddens and Laing both propose that the narcissist is not a 'whole' person, that they lack an inherent ontological security and biographical narrative that gives them a whole sense of self. The narcissist is completely distracted by their sense of self, or lack thereof. These fragmented beings only know how to look inwards, and this constant self-assessment and self-involvement alienates the narcissist from others.

How does this reflect in the way that we socialise today? Have the neoliberal values – that promote the rise of the individual (thus sequestering us from one another) – fed this fragmentation and thus alienation? And has the character of the narcissist become more prominent in response to a society that is increasingly focussed on individualism and identity politics?
 
Here you can download Giddens and Laing's texts.
 
The event is supported by Arts Council England Grants for the Arts