The Divided Self image is one is a series of 50 self portraits made over the last 10 years. It is inspired by R.D. Laing's 1960 book of that name. Dr. Laing explains how we all exist in a world as beings, defined by others who carry a model of us in their heads, just as we carry models of them in our heads. Our feelings and motivations derive very much from this condition of existing for others, who exist for us. Without this we suffer "ontological insecurity", a condition often expressed in terms of 'being dead' by people who are clearly still physically alive.