Loss Of Equilibrium-The Major Concern Of Jungian And Laingian Psychology Embodied In The Grass Is Singing

Doris (May) Lessing is one of the most widely recognized and most favored contemporary woman novelist. The common denominator in Doris' fictional world is the question of finding the right path for balance within the individual and between the individual and the society. From the very beginning, Doris has believed that consciousness of the self must not be neglected; neither must it overwhelm the essential connection to the outer world. To a great degree, Doris has been influenced by the psychology of Carl Jung and R. D. Laing, according to whom only by confronting directly one's inner realm and not succumbing to the collective will can an individual obtain a healthy and steady development.The Grass Is Singing is her first novel. In this book, Doris explores one of her major themes, that is, the decay and disintegration of both society and the individual owing to the lack of balance.The community which the protagonist, Mary Turner, lived in was dominated by the collective will at the expense of individuality. In this disrupted society, Mary lived without self-identity. She tried to solve the problem by identifying with the collective. She conformed to the society's standard by getting married but her marriage was doomed to failure from the very beginning. Her murky relationship with Moses, the black laborer, led finally to her death. Just before her death, she came to realize that the cause of her present state was that she had been turning for outside forces to save herself. But it was too late. Mary came to the end of her journey.