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'grippingly exposes and illuminates the most remarkable and controversial figure of post-war psychiatry' --Professor Anthony Clare
'This book brought me to a real understanding of a man who was sensitive, decent and - like so many Scots - too clever for his own good' --Colin Wilson, Literary review
'What emgerges from his biography is pure Greek tragedy' --Christian Tyler, Financial Times
'This book brought me to a real understanding of a man who was sensitive, decent and - like so many Scots - too clever for his own good' --Colin Wilson, Literary review
'What emgerges from his biography is pure Greek tragedy' --Christian Tyler, Financial Times
Product Description
RD Laing was the most famous - and notorious - psychiatrist and psychoanalyst of his generation. His most successful books 'The Divided Self' and 'Knots' sold worldwide in their millions. RD Laing was the original celebrity guru; a hero of the radical left and the hate figure of the establishment. RD Laing was a founder of the 'experiment' that was Kingsley Hall, based in the East End of London. Kingsley Hall was one of the first 'live-in' community centres for those who would otherwise have been subjected to mainstream psychiatric treatments such as ECT. Kingsley Hall had a magnetic effect on the famous and mad in equal measure. His radical 'treatment' for the depressed usually involved a bottle of whiskey, a tab of acid and some straight talking. In his own lifetime RD Laing became a mythical character who has influenced plays, films, musicians, directors, producers and authors from the early 60s to the present day. In this well-received biography, his second son a London-based practising lawyer, tells the story of the rise and fall of the guru from Glasgow, who died on the 23rd of August 1989.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
... the business of distorting the Past. Forgetting, distorting, glamorising, glorifying, idealising, belittling, romanticising - how obliging, how malleable the Past is.
R.D. Laing in letter to Marcelle Vincent, 29 September 1949*
In the introduction to Adrian Laing's remarkable biography of his father - Glaswegian psychoanalyst, poet and musician, Ronald David Laing - he states that the biggest difficulty was always going to be overcoming the prejudice that had developed over the years both for and against his father. Later, he remarks that whilst undertaking the monumental task of researching his father's life- through interviews, Laing's personal papers and the secondary literature - the question often arose of how correct his father's pronouncements were. Adrian decided that his father was correct about 50% of the time; but this, of course, only raises the question of which 50%?
Depending on what you read and who you listen to, there are several R.D. Laings. There are already three biographies as well as books of interviews, memoirs, films, documentaries and academic works**. Therefore the job of the reader is to separate fact from distortion, so as to reveal more clearly both ideologically-motivated debunking exercises and uncritical romanticising. This is no simple task: Laing was somewhat prone to `finessing' the truth himself in the construction of his own history and public persona. Indeed, at points, Adrian even suggests a degree of exaggeration in his father's accounts of the trials and adversities he experienced in his own upbringing.
I must confess that I also have an interest in perpetuating a reappraisal of Laing's ideas. I faced many of the same problems while producing a recent film on Laing and the work of his peer group***. Association with Laing's ideas (as I discovered) is prone to knee-jerk reactions from others - there is no mild or dispassionate view of his work. But in the final analysis, I have come to the conclusion that what truly matters is neither whether or not Laing was an anti-psychiatrist, nor whether he romanticised madness and rendered the families of patients culpable, but that he had a deep empathy and understanding of those who suffer. Moreover, he had a profound comprehension of the social and environmental causes of that distress. In our own period of late capitalist crisis- of public inquiry and parliamentary investigation into systemic failings in the relationships between banks, big business and government; at a time, indeed, when the pharmacological business has become the second most profitable industry in the UK - the work of R.D. Laing is well worth serious reconsideration. For Laing was one of the the first to question the hegemony of medicine, the use of drugs and physical therapies in dealing with these profound human, existential problems. Thus, for me, Adrian Laing's book was the perfect starting point.
*Quoted in Mullan, B (1997). R. D. Laing. Creative Destroyer. Cassell, London, p. 72.
** one recent study- Beveridge, A (2011). Portrait of the Psychiatrist as a Young Man. Oxford University Press- also comes highly recommended.
*** Fowler, L (2011) All Divided Selves.
R.D. Laing in letter to Marcelle Vincent, 29 September 1949*
In the introduction to Adrian Laing's remarkable biography of his father - Glaswegian psychoanalyst, poet and musician, Ronald David Laing - he states that the biggest difficulty was always going to be overcoming the prejudice that had developed over the years both for and against his father. Later, he remarks that whilst undertaking the monumental task of researching his father's life- through interviews, Laing's personal papers and the secondary literature - the question often arose of how correct his father's pronouncements were. Adrian decided that his father was correct about 50% of the time; but this, of course, only raises the question of which 50%?
Depending on what you read and who you listen to, there are several R.D. Laings. There are already three biographies as well as books of interviews, memoirs, films, documentaries and academic works**. Therefore the job of the reader is to separate fact from distortion, so as to reveal more clearly both ideologically-motivated debunking exercises and uncritical romanticising. This is no simple task: Laing was somewhat prone to `finessing' the truth himself in the construction of his own history and public persona. Indeed, at points, Adrian even suggests a degree of exaggeration in his father's accounts of the trials and adversities he experienced in his own upbringing.
I must confess that I also have an interest in perpetuating a reappraisal of Laing's ideas. I faced many of the same problems while producing a recent film on Laing and the work of his peer group***. Association with Laing's ideas (as I discovered) is prone to knee-jerk reactions from others - there is no mild or dispassionate view of his work. But in the final analysis, I have come to the conclusion that what truly matters is neither whether or not Laing was an anti-psychiatrist, nor whether he romanticised madness and rendered the families of patients culpable, but that he had a deep empathy and understanding of those who suffer. Moreover, he had a profound comprehension of the social and environmental causes of that distress. In our own period of late capitalist crisis- of public inquiry and parliamentary investigation into systemic failings in the relationships between banks, big business and government; at a time, indeed, when the pharmacological business has become the second most profitable industry in the UK - the work of R.D. Laing is well worth serious reconsideration. For Laing was one of the the first to question the hegemony of medicine, the use of drugs and physical therapies in dealing with these profound human, existential problems. Thus, for me, Adrian Laing's book was the perfect starting point.
*Quoted in Mullan, B (1997). R. D. Laing. Creative Destroyer. Cassell, London, p. 72.
** one recent study- Beveridge, A (2011). Portrait of the Psychiatrist as a Young Man. Oxford University Press- also comes highly recommended.
*** Fowler, L (2011) All Divided Selves.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A sobering look at a wounded healer
30 Jan 2010
The English-language publishing world contains a number of biographical works concerning R.D. Laing; most focus on his professional career and philosophy of psychological practice, some constitute "exposes" on his personal conduct and presumed state of mind, few books attempt a fair look at all of the above within the context of his times. Adrian Laing attempts this type of gestalt evaluation of the professional career and personal life and failings of his father, and does a very good job.
I felt I understood Laing and "what made him tick" after reading this, a study of Laing's life and a not entirely uncritical look at the sometimes dismissive and self-centered way in which the late Laing treated his own family and colleagues and related to those around him and why he believed the things that he did (chiefly the limitations of the science of his time and the then-existing treatments) in his psychiatric practice and books and lectures.
While it is plain to see that Laing's son was greatly hurt in Laing's financial & emotional neglect of his mother and siblings, Adrian shows great restraint in refraining from making this a book in the vein of "Mommy Dearest" and takes pains to explain that many false and exaggerated beliefs about Laing freely advocating the use of psychedelics and other strong drugs were popular and that Laing himself never quite recovered from having his initial phenomenal popularity fade with time.
While Adrian's book "debunks" a number of extreme beliefs attributed to Laing, Laing had gotten a few ideas pertinent to the issues he was working with, but some of the ideas about birth trauma, early childhood influences, etc. could not be proven or disproven and some have only been refined and integrated into the beliefs of psychology in a credible way in fairly recent times.
I lucked out in getting such a thorough examination of Laing's life and work; I had chosen this book because of an altogether different factor, the "psychedelic" multi-colored cover.
I felt I understood Laing and "what made him tick" after reading this, a study of Laing's life and a not entirely uncritical look at the sometimes dismissive and self-centered way in which the late Laing treated his own family and colleagues and related to those around him and why he believed the things that he did (chiefly the limitations of the science of his time and the then-existing treatments) in his psychiatric practice and books and lectures.
While it is plain to see that Laing's son was greatly hurt in Laing's financial & emotional neglect of his mother and siblings, Adrian shows great restraint in refraining from making this a book in the vein of "Mommy Dearest" and takes pains to explain that many false and exaggerated beliefs about Laing freely advocating the use of psychedelics and other strong drugs were popular and that Laing himself never quite recovered from having his initial phenomenal popularity fade with time.
While Adrian's book "debunks" a number of extreme beliefs attributed to Laing, Laing had gotten a few ideas pertinent to the issues he was working with, but some of the ideas about birth trauma, early childhood influences, etc. could not be proven or disproven and some have only been refined and integrated into the beliefs of psychology in a credible way in fairly recent times.
I lucked out in getting such a thorough examination of Laing's life and work; I had chosen this book because of an altogether different factor, the "psychedelic" multi-colored cover.
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