"Dualism, Self-Division, Schizophrenia"; a Discussion of the Appropriateness of Such Terminology for an Understanding of Scottish Cultural History.

Scotland : Identity, Myth & Culture

Scottish Cultural Studies

College of Continuing Education

Edinburgh University

Peter J. Moore

“Dualism, Self- Division, Schizophrenia” – Discuss the appropriateness of such terminology to an understanding of Scottish Cultural History.

Introduction.

To be in a position to discuss the appropriateness of such terminology it is first necessary to define the terms in their `understood` sense in contrast to their `correct` technical interpretation.

1. Dualism – The state of being two-fold of which each constituent is totally independent of the other.

2. Self-division – The state of being divided or split by the actions of oneself.

3. Schizophrenia – The display at different times of two very different characters by the same individual.

Having established the terms of reference as a basis for discussion, an examination of `How?` and `Why?` these terms have become synonymous, correctly or incorrectly with Scottish Cultural History can be carried out. The discussion will be constructed around the premise that:-

“A nation’s history and culture are interdependent; when a nation is denied its national status the history becomes the culture and vice versa.” (1)

* and supplementing this with reference to the Marxist perspective on nation and national identity in which Marx represents society as consisting of an historically established community of people characterised by common, stable, cultural features, distinctive traits and an identity awareness distinctive from other similar communities. These communities were designated, by Marx, as `Ethnic Formations`. He also developed the idea of `The Ethnic Social Carrier` as being a specific historical carrier of the ethnic at a particular moment i.e. a state. This `Ethnic Social Carrier` would often be transformed, changed, merged or fragmented depending on the stage of social development and the ethnic formation which it supported would also...