ontological security (n.) is a stable mental state derived from a sense of continuity and order in events.

R.D. Laing on Ontological Security

ontological security

is the assurances derived from an existential position.

This study is concerned with the issues involved where there is the partial or almost complete absence of the assurances derived from an existential position of what I shall call primary ontological security: with anxieties and dangers that I shall suggest arise only in terms of primary ontological insecurity... and with the consequent attempts to deal with such anxieties and dangers.' (Laing 'divided self' p.39)

is a stable mental state derived from a sense of continuity and order in events.

A stable mental state derived from a sense of continuity and order in events' [Tony Bilton et al., Introductory Sociology, 3rd edition. London, Macmillan, 1996:665] (NET)

is simply being secure in ones own being and having a sense of being a whole person.

[The following quotations, from The Divided Self, introduce Laing's concept of ontological security, by which he just means being secure in ones own being. He also calls it, having a sense of being a whole person. Certain people in certain families, he argues, do not develop feelings of ontological security, and this can result in schizophrenia. This idea was developed much further in Families of Schizophrenics (Laing and A. Esterson, 1964)]' (NET)

is encountering the hazards of life from a centrally firm sense of his own and other people's reality and identity.

Chapter 3: Ontological insecurity 'A man may have a sense of his presence in the world as a real, alive, whole, and, in a temporal sense, a continuous person. As such, he can live out into the world and meet others: a world and others experienced as equally real, alive, whole, and continuous. Such a basically ontologically secure person will encounter all the hazards of life . . . from a centrally firm sense of his own and other people's reality and identity.' (p.39)

is the unconscious need to believe that things are as they appear to be and that they will remain that way. Trust in societal norm.

The unconscious need to believe that things are as they appear to be and that they will remain that way. Trust in societal norm' (NET)

is the confidence that most humans beings have in the continuity of their self-identity and in the constancy of the surrounding social and material environments of action.

The phrase refers to the confidence that most humans beings have in the continuity of their self-identity and in the constancy of the surrounding social and material environments of action. n. A sense of the reliability of persons and things, so central to the notion of trust, is basic to feelings of ontological security... hence the two are psychologically closely related' (Giddens 1990:92)

home

comfort

stability

anxiety

crisis

disruption

fear

threat

Being

belonging

everyday

habit

identity

routine

self

ontology

trust

absolute knowing

absolute space

abstract machine

abyss

accumulation by dispossession

actualism

affirmative culture

affordance

agonism

aletheia

alethurgy

allegory of the cave

amor fati

Analytic - Synthetic Distinction

animality

anomalous monism

anthropocentrism

anthropomorphism

anti humanism

anticipative resoluteness

antinomy

aphanisis

apollinian

apollonian

Apollonian and the Dionysian

archaeology of knowledge

architectonic

aristotelianism

art of existence

art of government

art of life

artifactuality

artificial conceptual blockage

as if

as structure

as-if system of idea

ascending type of man

associated milieu

association of ideas

associative coherence

asymmetrical causation

athletic view of music

atlas malediction

a priori

absolute

anthropos

attunement

attunement (Befindlichkeit)

Definitions HQ