Thus, in the relationship that the self has with itself, one finds a second duality developing whereby the inner self splits to have a sado-masochist… - R. D. Laing

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Thus, in the relationship that the self has with itself, one finds a second duality developing whereby the inner self splits to have a sado-masochistic relationship with itself. When this happens, the inner self, which has arisen, we suggested, in the first place as a means of clinging to a precarious sense of identity, begins to lose even what identity it had to begin with.