Ronald David Laing (7 October 1927 – 23 August 1989), usually cited as R. D. Laing, was a Scottish
psychiatrist who wrote extensively on
mental illnessin particular, the experience of
psychosis
Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior ...
. Laing's views on the causes and treatment of psychopathological phenomena were influenced by his study of
existential philosophy
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
and ran counter to the chemical and electroshock methods that had become psychiatric orthodoxy. Taking the expressed
feelings
Feelings are subjective self-contained phenomenal experiences. According to the ''APA Dictionary of Psychology'', a feeling is "a self-contained phenomenal experience"; and feelings are "subjective, evaluative, and independent of the sensations ...
of the individual patient or client as valid descriptions of personal experience rather than simply as symptoms of mental illness, Laing regarded
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social wit ...
as a theory not a fact. Though associated in the public mind with the
anti-psychiatry
Anti-psychiatry is a movement based on the view that psychiatric treatment is often more damaging than helpful to patients, highlighting controversies about psychiatry. Objections include the reliability of psychiatric diagnosis, the questionabl ...
movement, he rejected the label. Politically, he was regarded as a thinker of the
New Left. Laing was portrayed by
David Tennant
David John Tennant (''né'' McDonald; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He rose to fame for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (2005–2010 and 2013) in the BBC science-fiction TV show ''Doctor Who'', reprising the rol ...
in the 2017 film ''
Mad to Be Normal
''Mad to Be Normal'' is a 2017 British drama film directed by Robert Mullan and written by Robert Mullan and Tracy Moreton. The film stars David Tennant, Elisabeth Moss, Gabriel Byrne, Michael Gambon, David Bamber, Olivia Poulet and Trevor Whi ...
''.
Early years
Laing was born in the
Govanhill
Govanhill ( gd, Cnoc a' Ghobhainn) is an area of Glasgow, Scotland, situated south of the River Clyde between Pollokshields, the Gorbals, Strathbungo, Crosshill, Glasgow, Crosshill, Polmadie and Queen's Park, Glasgow, Queen's Park. Shires of Sco ...
district of
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
on 7 October 1927, the only child of civil engineer David Park MacNair Laing and Amelia Glen Laing (née Kirkwood).
Laing described his parents – his mother especially – as being somewhat anti-social, and demanding the maximum achievement from him. Although his biographer son largely discounted Laing's account of his childhood, an obituary by an acquaintance of Laing asserted that about his parents – "the full truth he told only to a few close friends".
He was educated initially at Sir John Neilson Cuthbertson Public School and after four years transferred to
Hutchesons' Grammar School
Hutchesons' Grammar School is a co-educational independent day school for pupils aged 3-18 in Glasgow, Scotland.
It was founded as Hutchesons' Boys' Grammar School by George Hutcheson and Thomas Hutcheson in 1641
It is a selective school, ...
. Described variously as clever, competitive or precocious, he studied
Classics, particularly
philosophy, including through reading books from the local
library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
. Small and slightly built, Laing participated in distance running; he was also a musician, being made an Associate of the
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including performanc ...
. He studied
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
at the
University of Glasgow
, image = UofG Coat of Arms.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
Flag
, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
, ...
. During his medical degree he set up a "Socratic Club", of which the philosopher
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
agreed to be president. Laing failed his final exams. In a partial autobiography, ''Wisdom, Madness and Folly,'' Laing said he felt remarks he made under the influence of alcohol at a university function had offended the staff and led to him being failed on every subject including some he was sure he had passed. After spending six months working on a psychiatric unit, Laing passed the re-sits in 1951 to qualify as a medical doctor.
[Beveridge, A. (2011]
Portrait of the Psychiatrist as a Young Man: The Early Writing and Work of R. D. Laing, 1927-1960
Oxford University Press
Career
Laing spent a couple of years as a psychiatrist in the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
Psychiatric Unit at Netley, where, as he later recalled, those trying to fake
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social wit ...
to get a lifelong
disability pension were likely to get more than they had bargained for as
Insulin shock therapy
Insulin shock therapy or insulin coma therapy was a form of psychiatric treatment in which patients were repeatedly injected with large doses of insulin in order to produce daily comas over several weeks.Neustatter WL (1948) ''Modern psychiatry ...
was being used. In 1953 Laing returned to Glasgow, participated in an existentialism-oriented discussion group, and worked at the
Glasgow Royal Mental Hospital The hospital was influenced by
David Henderson's school of thought, which may have exerted an unacknowledged influence on Laing; he became the youngest
consultant in the country.
[Mad to be Normal: Conversations with R.D. Laing aperback/ref>][ Laing's colleagues characterised him as "conservative" for his opposition to ]Electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroconvulsive th ...
and the new drugs that were being introduced.
In 1956 Laing went to train on a grant at the Tavistock Clinic
The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is a specialist mental health trust based in north London. The Trust specialises in talking therapies. The education and training department caters for 2,000 students a year from the United Ki ...
in London, widely known as a centre for the study and practice of psychotherapy (particularly psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
). At this time, he was associated with John Bowlby
Edward John Mostyn Bowlby, CBE, FBA, FRCP, FRCPsych (; 26 February 1907 – 2 September 1990) was a British psychologist, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attach ...
, D. W. Winnicott and Charles Rycroft
Charles Frederick Rycroft (; 9 September 1914 – 24 May 1998) was a British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He studied medicine at University College London, and worked briefly as a psychiatrist for the Maudsley Hospital. For most of his caree ...
. He remained at the Tavistock Clinic
The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is a specialist mental health trust based in north London. The Trust specialises in talking therapies. The education and training department caters for 2,000 students a year from the United Ki ...
until 1964.
In 1965 Laing and a group of colleagues created the Philadelphia Association
The Philadelphia Association is a UK charity concerned with the understanding and relief of mental suffering. It was founded in 1965 by the radical psychiatrist and psychoanalyst R. D. Laing along with fellow psychiatrists David Cooper, Joseph B ...
and started a psychiatric community project at Kingsley Hall
Kingsley Hall is a community centre, in Powis Road, Bromley-by-Bow in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East End of London. It dates back to the work of Doris and Muriel Lester, who had a nursery school in nearby Bruce Road. Their brother, ...
, where patients and therapists lived together. The Norwegian author Axel Jensen
Axel Buchardt Jensen (12 February 1932 – 13 February 2003) was a Norwegian author. From 1957 until 2002, he published both fiction and non-fiction texts which include novels, poems, essays, a biography, and manuscripts for cartoons and animated ...
contacted Laing at Kingsley Hall after reading his book ''The Divided Self'', which had been given to him by Noel Cobb. Jensen was treated by Laing and subsequently they became close friends. Laing often visited Jensen on board his ship ''Shanti Devi
Shanti Devi (12 December 1926 – 27 December 1987), known as Lugdi Devi (18 January 1902 – 4 October 1925) in her alleged past life, was an Indian woman who claimed to remember her previous life, and became the subject of reincarnation researc ...
'', which was his home in Stockholm.
In 1967 Laing appeared on the BBC programme ''Your Witness'', chaired by Ludovic Kennedy
Sir Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy (3 November 191918 October 2009) was a Scottish journalist, broadcaster, humanist and author best known for re-examining cases such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the murder convictions of Timothy Evans an ...
on which, alongside Jonathan Aitken
Jonathan William Patrick Aitken (born 30 August 1942) is a British author, Church of England priest, former prisoner and former Conservative Party politician. Beginning his career in journalism, he was elected to Parliament in 1974 (serving un ...
and G.P. Ian Dunbar, he argued for the legalisation of cannabis
''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: '' Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternative ...
, in the first live television debate on the subject. In the same years, his views were explored in the television play ''In Two Minds
''In Two Minds'' is a television play by David Mercer commissioned for ''The Wednesday Play'' (BBC 1) anthology drama series. First transmitted on 1 March 1967, it was directed by Ken Loach and produced by Tony Garnett and features Anna Cropper ...
'', written by David Mercer.
In October 1972, Laing met Arthur Janov
Arthur Janov (; August 21, 1924October 1, 2017), also known as Art Janov, was an American psychologist, psychotherapist, and writer. He gained notability as the creator of primal therapy, a treatment for mental illness that involves repeatedly de ...
, author of the popular book '' The Primal Scream''. Though Laing found Janov modest and unassuming, he thought of him as a "jig man" (someone who knows a lot about a little). Laing sympathized with Janov, but regarded his primal therapy
Primal therapy is a trauma-based psychotherapy created by Arthur Janov, who argues that neurosis is caused by the repressed pain of childhood trauma. Janov argues that repressed pain can be sequentially brought to conscious awareness for resoluti ...
as a lucrative business, one which required no more than obtaining a suitable space and letting people "hang it all out".
Inspired by the work of American psychotherapist Elizabeth Fehr, Laing began to develop a team offering "rebirthing workshops" in which one designated person chooses to re-experience the struggle of trying to break out of the birth canal represented by the remaining members of the group who surround him or her. Many former colleagues regarded him as a brilliant mind gone wrong but there were some who thought Laing was somewhat psychotic.
Laing and anti-psychiatry
Laing was seen as an important figure in the anti-psychiatry
Anti-psychiatry is a movement based on the view that psychiatric treatment is often more damaging than helpful to patients, highlighting controversies about psychiatry. Objections include the reliability of psychiatric diagnosis, the questionabl ...
movement, along with David Cooper, although he never denied the value of treating mental distress.
He also challenged psychiatric diagnosis itself, arguing that diagnosis of a mental disorder contradicted accepted medical procedure: diagnosis was made on the basis of behaviour or conduct, and examination and ancillary tests that traditionally precede the diagnosis of viable pathologies (like broken bones or pneumonia) occurred after the diagnosis of mental disorder (if at all). Hence, according to Laing, psychiatry was founded on a false epistemology
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Epis ...
: illness diagnosed by conduct, but treated biologically.
Laing maintained that schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social wit ...
was "a theory not a fact"; he believed the models of genetically inherited schizophrenia being promoted by biologically based psychiatry were not accepted by leading medical geneticists. He rejected the "medical model of mental illness”; according to Laing diagnosis of mental illness did not follow a traditional medical model; and this led him to question the use of medication such as antipsychotics
Antipsychotics, also known as neuroleptics, are a class of psychotropic medication primarily used to manage psychosis (including delusions, hallucinations, paranoia or disordered thought), principally in schizophrenia but also in a range of ...
by psychiatry. His attitude to recreational drugs was quite different; privately, he advocated an anarchy of experience.
Personal life
In his early life, Laing's father, David, an electrical engineer who had served in the Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
, seems often to have come to blows with his own brother, and himself had a breakdown for three months when Laing was a teenager. His mother Amelia, according to some speculation and rumour about her behaviour, has been described as "psychologically peculiar".
Laing was troubled by his own personal problems, suffering from both episodic alcoholism
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...
and clinical depression
Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Intro ...
, according to his self-diagnosis
Self-diagnosis is the process of diagnosing, or identifying, medical conditions in oneself. It may be assisted by medical dictionaries, books, resources on the Internet, past personal experiences, or recognizing symptoms or medical signs of a cond ...
in a BBC Radio interview with Anthony Clare
Anthony Ward Clare (24 December 1942 – 28 October 2007) was an Irish psychiatrist and a presenter of radio and television programmes. He was the presenter of the radio series ''In the Psychiatrist's Chair'', an interview and discussion show, w ...
in 1983, although he reportedly was free of both in the years before his death. These admissions were to have serious consequences for Laing as they formed part of the case against him by the General Medical Council which led to him ceasing to practise medicine.
Laing fathered six sons and four daughters by four women. After his rise as a celebrity, Laing left his first wife Anne Hearne, a former nursing student (m. 1952–1966), and their five children. Subsequently, he married German graphic designer Jutta Werner (m. 1974–1986) with whom he fathered three children. His ninth child, with German therapist Sue Sünkel, was born in 1984. In 1988 Laing's partner until his death, Marguerite, gave birth to his tenth child, Charles. Laing died 19 months later of a heart attack at the age of 61 while playing tennis.
His son Adrian, speaking in 2008, said, "It was ironic that my father became well known as a family psychiatrist, when, in the meantime, he had nothing to do with his own family". His oldest child Fiona, born in 1952, spent years in mental institutions and was treated for schizophrenia. His daughter Susan died in 1976, aged 21, of leukaemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...
. Adam, his oldest son by his second marriage, who had been in an increasingly melancholic and fragile state of mind, was found dead in May 2008 in a tent on the island of Formentera. He had died of a heart attack, aged 41.
Works
In 1913, psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers
Karl Theodor Jaspers (, ; 23 February 1883 – 26 February 1969) was a German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry, and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jaspe ...
had pronounced, in his work, ''General Psychopathology'', that many of the symptoms of mental illness (and particularly of delusion
A delusion is a false fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or som ...
s) were "un-understandable", and therefore were worthy of little consideration except as a sign of some other underlying primary disorder. Then, in 1956, Gregory Bateson and his colleagues, Donald Jackson, and Jay Haley
Jay Douglas Haley (July 19, 1923 – February 13, 2007) was one of the founding figures of brief and family therapy in general and of the strategic model of psychotherapy, and he was one of the more accomplished teachers, clinical supervisors, an ...
articulated a theory of schizophrenia as stemming from double bind
A double bind is a dilemma in communication in which an individual (or group) receives two or more reciprocally conflicting messages. In some scenarios (e.g. within families or romantic relationships) this can be emotionally distressing, creatin ...
situations where a person receives different or contradictory messages. The perceived symptoms of schizophrenia were therefore an expression of this distress, and should be valued as a cathartic
In medicine, a cathartic is a substance that ''accelerates'' defecation. This is similar to a laxative, which is a substance that ''eases'' defecation, usually by softening feces. It is possible for a substance to be both a laxative and a catha ...
and trans-formative experience. Laing argued a similar account for psychoses: that the strange behavior and seemingly confused speech of people undergoing a psychotic
Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior t ...
episode were ultimately understandable as an attempt to communicate worries and concerns, often in situations where this was not possible or not permitted. Laing stressed the role of society, and particularly the family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
, in the development of "madness" (his term).
Laing saw psychopathology as being seated not in biological or psychic organs – whereby environment is relegated to playing at most only an accidental role as immediate trigger of disease (the "stress diathesis model" of the nature and causes of psychopathology) – but rather in the social cradle, the urban home, which cultivates it, the very crucible in which selves are forged. This re-evaluation of the locus of the disease process – and consequent shift in forms of treatment – was in stark contrast to psychiatric orthodoxy (in the broadest sense we have of ourselves as psychological subjects and pathological selves). Laing was revolutionary in valuing the content of psychotic behaviour and speech as a valid expression of distress, albeit wrapped in an enigmatic language of personal symbolism which is meaningful only from within their situation.
Laing expanded the view of the “double bind
A double bind is a dilemma in communication in which an individual (or group) receives two or more reciprocally conflicting messages. In some scenarios (e.g. within families or romantic relationships) this can be emotionally distressing, creatin ...
” hypothesis put forth by Bateson and his team, and came up with a new concept to describe the highly complex situation that unfolds in the process of "going mad" – an "incompatible knot".
Laing never denied the existence of mental illness, but viewed it in a radically different light from his contemporaries. For Laing, mental illness could be a transformative episode whereby the process of undergoing mental distress was compared to a shaman
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...
ic journey. The traveler could return from the journey with important insights, and may have become (in the views of Laing and his followers) a wiser and more grounded person as a result (Louis, B., 2006, Moving Beyond Prozac, DSM, and the New Psychiatry).
In ''The Divided Self'' (1960), Laing contrasts the experience of the “ ontologically secure” person with that of a person who "cannot take the realness, aliveness, autonomy and identity of himself and others for granted" and who consequently contrives strategies to avoid "losing his self". This concept is used to develop a psychodynamic
Psychodynamics, also known as psychodynamic psychology, in its broadest sense, is an approach to psychology that emphasizes systematic study of the psychological forces underlying human behavior, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate t ...
model of the mind to explain psychosis and schizophrenia.
In ''Self and Others
''Self and Others'' is a psychological study by R. D. Laing, first published in 1961. It was re-issued in a second edition (1969), which (in Laing's words) was “extensively revised, without being changed in any fundamental way”.
The book for ...
'' (1961), Laing's definition of normality shifted somewhat.
Laing also wrote poetry and his poetry publications include ''Knots'' (1970, published by Penguin) and ''Sonnets'' (1979, published by Michael Joseph).
Laing appears, alongside his son Adam, on the 1980 album ''Miniatures - a sequence of fifty-one tiny masterpieces'' edited by Morgan Fisher
Stephen Morgan Fisher (born 1 January 1950) is an English keyboard player and composer, and is most known as a member of Mott the Hoople in the early 1970s. However, his career has covered a wide range of musical activities, and he is still ac ...
, performing the song “Tipperary
Tipperary is the name of:
Places
*County Tipperary, a county in Ireland
**North Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Nenagh
**South Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Clonmel
*Tipperary (town), County Tipperary's na ...
”.
Influence
In 1965 Laing co-founded the UK charity the Philadelphia Association
The Philadelphia Association is a UK charity concerned with the understanding and relief of mental suffering. It was founded in 1965 by the radical psychiatrist and psychoanalyst R. D. Laing along with fellow psychiatrists David Cooper, Joseph B ...
, concerned with the understanding and relief of mental suffering, which he also chaired. His work influenced the wider movement of therapeutic communities Therapeutic community is a participative, group-based approach to long-term mental illness, personality disorders and drug addiction. The approach was usually residential, with the clients and therapists living together, but increasingly residentia ...
, operating in less "confrontational" (in a Laingian perspective) psychiatric settings. Other organizations created in a Laingian tradition are the Arbours Association, the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling in London, and the R.D. Laing in the 21st Century Symposium held annually at Esalen Institute
The Esalen Institute, commonly called Esalen, is a non-profit American retreat center and intentional community in Big Sur, California, which focuses on humanistic alternative education. The institute played a key role in the Human Poten ...
, where Laing frequently taught.
Films and plays about Laing
* ''Ah, Sunflower'' (1967). Short film by Robert Klinkert and Iain Sinclair
Iain Sinclair FRSL (born 11 June 1943) is a writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London, recently within the influences of psychogeography. Biography Education
Sinclair was born in Cardiff in 1943. From 1956 to 1961, he was educate ...
, filmed around the Dialectics of Liberation
The congress on the Dialectics of Liberation was an international congress organised in London between 15 and 30 July 1967. It was organised by the American educationalist Joe Berke. The scope of the conference was to "demystify human violence i ...
conference and featuring Laing, Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
, Stokely Carmichael
Kwame Ture (; born Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael; June 29, 1941November 15, 1998) was a prominent organizer in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global pan-African movement. Born in Trinidad, he grew up in the Unite ...
and others.
* ''Cain’s Film'' (1969). Short film by Jamie Wadhawan on Alexander Trocchi
Alexander Whitelaw Robertson Trocchi ( ; 30 July 1925 – 15 April 1984) was a List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist.
Early life and career
Trocchi was born in Glasgow to Alfred (formerly Alfredo) Trocchi, a music-hall performer of I ...
, featuring other counter-cultural
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
figures in London at the time including Laing, William Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...
and Davy Graham
David Michael Gordon "Davey" Graham (originally spelled Davy Graham) (26 November 1940 – 15 December 2008) was a British guitarist and one of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk revival. He inspired many famous practitioners ...
.
* ''Family Life
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideal ...
'' (1971). Reworking of ''The Wednesday Play
''The Wednesday Play'' is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 for six seasons from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually original works written for television, although dramatic adaptations of fiction ...
'': ''In Two Minds
''In Two Minds'' is a television play by David Mercer commissioned for ''The Wednesday Play'' (BBC 1) anthology drama series. First transmitted on 1 March 1967, it was directed by Ken Loach and produced by Tony Garnett and features Anna Cropper ...
'' (1967) that "explored the issue of schizophrenia and the ideas of the radical psychiatrist R. D. Laing". Both were directed by Ken Loach
Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty ('' Poor Cow'', 1967), homelessn ...
from scripts by David Mercer.
* ''Asylum
Asylum may refer to:
Types of asylum
* Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome
* Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute
* Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea
...
'' (1972). Documentary directed by Peter Robinson showing Laing's psychiatric community project where patients and therapists lived together. Laing also appears in the film.
* ''Knots'' (1975). Film adapted from Laing's 1970 book and Edward Petherbridge
Edward Petherbridge (born 3 August 1936) is an English actor, writer and artist. Among his many roles, he portrayed Lord Peter Wimsey in the 1987 BBC television adaptations of Dorothy L. Sayers' novels, and Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's ''R ...
's play.
* ''How Does It Feel?'' (1976). Documentary on physical senses and creativity featuring Laing, Joseph Beuys
Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...
, David Hockney
David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...
, Elkie Brooks
Elkie Brooks (born Elaine Bookbinder; 25 February 1946) is an English rock, blues and jazz singer. She was a vocalist with the bands Dada and Vinegar Joe, and later became a solo artist. She gained her biggest success in the late 1970s and 198 ...
, Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten ...
and Richard Gregory
Richard Langton Gregory (24 July 1923 – 17 May 2010) was a British psychologist and Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Bristol.
Life and career
Richard Gregory was born in London. He was the son of Christopher Clive Langt ...
.
* ''Birth with R.D. Laing'' (1978). Documentary on the "institutionalization of childbirth practices in Western society".
* ''R.D. Laing’s Glasgow'' (1979). An episode of the Canadian TV series ''Cities
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
''.
* The play '' Mary Barnes'' by David Edgar (1979) was a theatrical indictment of traditional psychiatry, chronicling the six-year journey through the illness of Barnes, a middle-aged former nurse diagnosed as schizophrenic, kept in padded cells and drugged and shocked into numbness. Set in 1960s London and based on the personal accounts of Barnes and therapist Joseph Berke
Joseph H. Berke, M.D., (January 17, 1939 – January 11, 2021) was an American–born psychotherapist, author and lecturer. He studied at Columbia College of Columbia University and graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Ne ...
, the play follows her years as a resident of Kingsley Hall, where the innovative treatment approach begins her path to recovery. Starring Patti Love, it was broadcast on BBC Radio 7
BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British Digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital radio broadcasting, radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a ...
on 7 November 2009, and also in December 2011 on Radio 4 Extra
BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the p ...
.
* ''Did You Used to be R.D. Laing?'' (1989). Documentary portrait of Laing by Kirk Tougas and Tom Shandel. Adapted for the stage in 2000 by Mike Maran.
* ''Eros, Love & Lies'' (1990). Documentary on Laing.
* ''What You See Is Where You’re At'' (2001). A collage of found footage by Luke Fowler on Laing's experiment in alternative therapy at Kingsley Hall.
* The Trap 1 (TV series)(2007) - F**k you Buddy! - Adam Curtis. Covering Laings' modeling of familial interactions using game theory.
* ''All Divided Selves'' (2011). Another collage of archive material and new footage by Luke Fowler.
*''El amor'' (2016). Short film by Siddhartha García Sánchez, filmed around the book ''Knots'' by Laing.
* ''Mad to Be Normal
''Mad to Be Normal'' is a 2017 British drama film directed by Robert Mullan and written by Robert Mullan and Tracy Moreton. The film stars David Tennant, Elisabeth Moss, Gabriel Byrne, Michael Gambon, David Bamber, Olivia Poulet and Trevor Whi ...
'' (2017). A fictionalised account of the Kingsley Hall project, starring David Tennant
David John Tennant (''né'' McDonald; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He rose to fame for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (2005–2010 and 2013) in the BBC science-fiction TV show ''Doctor Who'', reprising the rol ...
as Laing and directed by Robert Mullan.
Selected bibliography
* Laing, R.D. (1960) ''The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness''. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
* Laing, R.D. (1961) ''The Self and Others''. London: Tavistock Publications.
* Laing, R.D. and Esterson, A. (1964) ''Sanity, Madness and the Family''. London: Penguin Books.
* Laing, R.D. and Cooper, D.G. (1964) ''Reason and Violence: A Decade of Sartre’s Philosophy''. (2nd ed.) London: Tavistock Publications Ltd.
* Laing, R.D., Phillipson, H. and Lee, A.R. (1966) ''Interpersonal Perception: A Theory and a Method of Research''. London: Tavistock Publications.
* Laing, R.D. (1967) '' The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise''. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
* Laing, R.D. (1970) ''Knots''. London: Penguin
excerpt
movie (IMDB)
* Laing, R.D. (1971) ''The Politics of the Family and Other Essays''. London: Tavistock Publications.
* Laing, R.D. (1972) ''Knots''. New York: Vintage Press.
* Laing, R.D. (1976) ''Do You Love Me? An Entertainment in Conversation and Verse''. New York: Pantheon Books.
* Laing, R.D. (1976) ''Sonnets''. London: Michael Joseph.
* Laing, R.D. (1976) ''The Facts of Life''. London: Penguin.
* Laing, R.D. (1977) ''Conversations with Adam and Natasha''. New York: Pantheon.
* Laing, R.D. (1982) ''The Voice of Experience: Experience, Science and Psychiatry''. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
* Laing, R.D. (1985) ''Wisdom, Madness and Folly: The Making of a Psychiatrist 1927-1957''. London: Macmillan.
* Mullan, B. (1995) ''Mad to be Normal: Conversations with R.D. Laing''. London: Free Association Books
Free Association Books is a project started in London in the 1980s. Bob Young and colleagues began a search using psychoanalysis to understand the problems of liberation. Other people became involved in the movement such as Andrew Samuels and B ...
.
* Russell, R. and R.D. Laing (1992) ''R.D. Laing and Me: Lessons in Love''. New York: Hillgarth Press. (download free on www.rdlaing.org
* Mott, F.J. and R.D. Laing (2014
''Mythology of the Prenatal Life''
London: Starwalker Press. (Hand-written annotations .1977by R.D. Laing are included in the text, revealing Laing's own thoughts and associative material on prenatal psychology as he studied this book.Original is located in the R.D. Laing Special Collection, Glasgow University Library.
See als
“Prenatal Patterns in Postnatal Life” (1978) by R.D. Laing.
/ref>
See also
References
Further reading
* Boyers, R. and R. Orrill, Eds. (1971) ''Laing and Anti-Psychiatry''. New York: Salamagundi Press.
* Burston, D. (1996) ''The Wing of Madness: The Life and Work of R. D. Laing''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
* Burston, D. (2000) ''The Crucible of Experience: R.D. Laing and the Crisis of Psychotherapy''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
* Clay, J. (1996) ''R.D. Laing: A Divided Self''. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
* Collier, A. (1977) ''R.D. Laing: The Philosophy and Politics of Psychotherapy''. New York: Pantheon.
* Evans, R.I. (1976) ''R.D. Laing, The Man and His Ideas''. New York: E.P. Dutton.
* Friedenberg, E.Z. (1973) ''R.D. Laing''. New York: Viking Press.
* Itten, T. & Young, C. (Ed.) (2012) R. D. Laing - 50 Years since The Divieded Self. Ross-on-Wye, PCCS-Books
* Miller, G. (2004) ''R.D. Laing''. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
* Laing, A. (1994) ''R.D. Laing: A Biography''. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press.
* Kotowicz, Z. (1997) ''R.D. Laing and the Paths of Anti-Psychiatry''. London: Taylor & Francis.
* Mullan, B., Ed. (1997) ''R.D. Laing: Creative Destroyer''. London: Cassell & Co.
* Mullan, B. (1999) ''R.D. Laing: A Personal View''. London: Duckworth.
* Raschid, S., Ed. (2005) ''R.D. Laing: Contemporary Perspectives''. London: Free Association Books
Free Association Books is a project started in London in the 1980s. Bob Young and colleagues began a search using psychoanalysis to understand the problems of liberation. Other people became involved in the movement such as Andrew Samuels and B ...
.
External links
Biography at The Society for Laingian Studies
Special Issue of Janus Head
Edited by Daniel Burston
The Philadelphia Association
* ttp://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article6058901.ece RD Laing: The Abominable Family Manfrom The Sunday Times
Life before Death
- 1978 album of sonnets and other poems performed by R. D. Laing to an original musical score
* : St Görans Lecture, Stockholm, 10 February 1982.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laing, Ronald David
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Laing, R.D.
Laing, R.D.
Laing, R.D.
Laing, R.D.
British psychoanalysts
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Laing, R. D.
Laing, R. D.
Royal Army Medical Corps officers
Scottish soldiers
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People educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School
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20th-century Scottish medical doctors
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