Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Laing
Scientific career
Fields Psychiatry
y y
Influences Eugène Minkowski
Jean-Paul Sartre
Influenced David Abram
Loren Mosher[1]
Early years
Laing was born in the Govanhill district of
Glasgow on 7 October 1927, the only
child of civil engineer David Park
MacNair Laing and Amelia Glen Laing
(née Kirkwood).[4]:7 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".[5][6]
Career
Laing spent a couple of years as a
psychiatrist in the British Army
Psychiatric Unit at Netley, where as he
later recalled, those trying to fake
schizophrenia to get a lifelong disability
pension were likely to get more than they
had bargained for as Insulin shock
therapy was being used.[8] In 1953 Laing
returned to Glasgow, participated in an
existentialism-oriented discussion group,
and worked at the Glasgow Royal Mental
Hospital[9] 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.[10] .[7] Laing's colleagues
characterised him as "conservative" for
his opposition to Electroconvulsive
therapy and the new drugs that were
being introduced.[11]
Personal life
In his early life, Laing's father, David, an
electrical engineer who had served in the
Royal Air Force, 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".[4]
Works
In 1913, psychiatrist and philosopher Karl
Jaspers had pronounced, in his work,
General Psychopathology, that many of
the symptoms of mental illness (and
particularly of delusions) 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 articulated a theory of
schizophrenia as stemming from double
bind situations where a person receives
different or contradictory messages.[25]
The perceived symptoms of
schizophrenia were therefore an
expression of this distress, and should
be valued as a cathartic and trans-
formative experience. Laing argued a
similar account for psychoses: that the
strange behavior and seemingly
confused speech of people undergoing a
psychotic 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, in the development of "madness"
(his term).
Influence
In 1965 Laing co-founded the UK charity
the Philadelphia Association, concerned
with the understanding and relief of
mental suffering, which he also
chaired.[29] His work influenced the wider
movement of therapeutic communities,
operating in less "confrontational" (in a
Laingian perspective) psychiatric
settings. Other organizations created in a
Laingian tradition are the Arbours
Association[30], the New School of
Psychotherapy and Counselling in
London[31], and the R.D. Laing in the 21st
Century Symposium[32] held annually at
Esalen Institute, where Laing frequently
taught.
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.[36]
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.
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 [c.1977] by R.D. Laing are
included in the text, revealing Laing's
own thoughts and associative material
on prenatal psychology as he studied
this book.[37] )
See also
Joseph Berke - psychoanalyst and
therapist to Mary Barnes
Existential therapy
Family nexus
Kraepelin's enigmatic dream speech -
analogous to psychotic speech
Alice Miller
Eugène Minkowski - a psychiatrist
commended by Laing
Martti Olavi Siirala
David Smail - a more modern writer
with similarly unconventional views
Stephen Ticktin
The Trap - a three-part BBC series
which, in its first episode, concentrates
on Laing's work
Emmy van Deurzen
References
1. "SLS - Colloquia - Still Crazy After All
These Years" . laingsociety.org. Retrieved
4 October 2016.
2. Kotowicz, Zbigniew (1997), R.D. Laing
and the paths of anti-psychiatry,
Routledge
3. "R. D. Laing," in The New Left, edited by
Maurice Cranston, The Library Press,
1971, pp. 179-208. "Ronald Laing must be
accounted one of the main contributors to
the theoretical and rhetorical armoury of
the contemporary Left."
4. Miller, Gavin (2004). R.D. Laing.
Edinburgh review, introductions to Scottish
culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Review in
association with Edinburgh University
Press. ISBN 1859332706.
OCLC 58554944 .
5. R. D. Laing: a biography. Adrian C.
Laing.
6. Obituary of R. D. Laing by Joseph Berke;
Daily Telegraph, 25 August 1989.
7. 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
8. Kynaston, David (2009). Family Britain
1951-7. London: Bloomsbury. p. 97.
ISBN 9780747583851.
9. Turnbull, Ronnie; Beveridge, Craig
(1988), "R.D. Laing and Scottish
Philosophy", Edinburgh Review, 78–9:
126–127, ISSN 0267-6672
10. Mad to be Normal: Conversations with
R.D. Laing [Paperback]
11. Mad to be Normal: Conversations with
R.D. Laing [Paperback]
12. Itten, Theodor, The Paths of Soul
Making , archived from the original on 16
October 2007, retrieved 17 October 2007
13. "Kingsley Hall" . Philadelphia
Association. Archived from the original
on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 13 September
2008.
14. Axel Jensen. Axel Jensen, Livet sett
fra Nimbus ("Life as seen from Nimbus"):
a biography as told to Petter Mejlænder (in
Norwegian). Oslo: Norway: Spartacus
forlag (Spartacus Publishing).
15. Laing, Adrian (1994). R.D. Laing: A Life.
London: HarperCollinsPublishers.
pp. 165–166. ISBN 0-00-638829-9.
16. Miller, Russell (12 April 2009), "RD
Laing: The abominable family man" , The
Sunday Times, London, retrieved 8 August
2011
17. Mad to be Normal: Conversations with
R. D. Laing ISBN 1853433950[Paperback]
18. Obituary of R. D. Laing by Joseph
Berke; Daily Telegraph, 25 August 1989
19. University of Glasgow Special
Collection: Document Details , retrieved
17 October 2007
20. Burston, Daniel (1998), The Wing of
Madness: The Life and Work of R. D.
Laing, Harvard University Press, p. 145,
ISBN 0-674-95359-2
21. Laing, Adrian (1 June 2008), "Dad
solved other people's problems — but not
his own" , The Guardian, London, retrieved
22 May 2010
22. Laing Society Archived 2 March 2007
at the Wayback Machine.
23. His third daughter Karen was born in
Glasgow in 1955 and is now a pracitising
psychotherapist.Burston, Daniel (1998),
The Wing of Madness: The Life and Work
of R. D. Laing, Harvard University Press,
p. 125, ISBN 0-674-95359-2
24. Day, Elizabeth (1 June 2008). "Dad
solved other people's problems — but not
his own" . The Guardian. London.
Retrieved 22 May 2010.
25. Bateson, G., Jackson, D. D., Haley, J. &
Weakland, J., 1956, Toward a theory of
schizophrenia. (in: Behavioral Science,
Vol.1, pp. 251-264)
26. Laing, R.D. (1965). The Divided Self.
Pelican. pp. 41–43. ISBN 0-14-020734-1.
27. "The Unofficial R.D.Laing Site -
Biography" . Archived from the original on
7 February 2002. Retrieved 4 October
2016.
28. "Various - Miniatures (A Sequence Of
Fifty-One Tiny Masterpieces Edited By
Morgan Fisher) (Vinyl, LP, Album)" .
discogs.com. Discogs. Retrieved
4 October 2016.
29. "The Philadelphia Association:
Philosophical Perspective" . Philadelphia
Association. Archived from the original
on 6 December 2008. Retrieved
7 September 2008.
30. Coltart, Nina (1990). "ARBOURS
ASSOCIATION 20TH ANNIVERSARY
LECTURE" . British Journal of
Psychotherapy. p. 165. Retrieved
7 September 2008.
31. "Existential Counselling and
Psychotherapy, and the New School" .
New School of Psychotherapy and
Counselling. Archived from the original
on 26 December 2008. Retrieved
7 September 2008.
32. "RD Laing in the 21st Century
Symposium" . RD Laing in the 21s Century
Symposium. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
33. Cooke, Lez "BFI Screenonline: Loach,
Ken (1936-) Biography" , accessed 7 July
2011.
34. IMDB "Birth with R.D. Laing" ,
accessed 7 July 2011.
35. "Current Features - Mad to be
Normal" . www.gizmofilms.com. Gizmo
Films. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
36. Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing .
Retrieved on 16 October 2008
37. Original is located in the R.D. Laing
Special Collection, Glasgow University
Library. See also 'Prenatal Patterns in
Postnatal Life' (1978) by R.D. Laing.
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.
External links
Wikiquote has quotations related to: R. D.
Laing
Wikimedia Commons has media related
to R. D. Laing.
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=R._D._Laing&oldid=852755011"