The Wing of Madness: The Life and Work of R.D. Laing

By Daniel Burston

Book Overview

When we last heard of R.D. Laing (1927-1989), he was said to be arriving at lectures addled with hashish and brandy, and promoting rebirthing techniques to treat prenatal psychological trauma. Reflecting on this spectacle that Laing left the world, we are apt to forget that he was one of the most influential and controversial psychiatrists of the 20th century, whose books sold in the millions in more than 20 languages. Even at the height of his power, however, Ronald Laing was a mystery, a man of many contradictions, and it is this mystery that The Wing of Madness explores, searching out both the story of Laing's life and the significance of his work.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674953584
• ISBN13: 9780674953581
• Release Date: August 1996
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 275 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.0" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

R. D. Laing: Social Misfit and Theorist of Schizophrenia.

In the 1960s several different movements became prevalent which operated in direct opposition to the institution of psychiatry, which often included forced medicating, confinement, and electroshock and psychosurgery on individuals deemed to be mentally ill. These individuals included both leftists (radical leftists, Marxists, and other liberals) as well as ?libertarian rightists? and those who argued for individual responsibility attempting to re-politicize the process of denying civil rights to certain individuals deemed insane, among whom were many in the psychedelic counter-culture, cult groups including Scientology, various indiduals believing themselves to have been wronged by the psychiatric establishment and often identifying themselves as ?psychiatric survivors?, and even some prominent psychiatrists ? the two most notorious such ?anti-psychiatrists? being Thomas Szasz (libertarian rightist and opponent of coercive ?treatment?) and R. D. Laing (whose politiics ranged from the Marxist left to the far right). _The Wing of Madness_ is a biography of the Scottish maverick psychiatrist R. D. Laing and his contributions to our understanding of the schizoid/schizophrenic mode of being-in-the-world in terms of existentialist theory. Laing had a strange relationship to the medical establishment beginning as a psychiatrist who developed an interest in the field possibly as a result of his own troubled upbringing (his mother frequently prone to depression and possibly psychosis and his father prone to difficult bouts as well). Laing himself would come to embrace both traditional Christianity (in the form of Presbyterianism), but also Gnosticism and ancient mysticisms, as well as Eastern religions and philosophy, and the phenomenological philosophies of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, and the existentialism of Merleau-Ponty and Jean Paul Sartre. For a time Laing flirted with Marxism, but later would claim that he had embraced the right (although exactly to what extent this was to be interpreted was difficult to determine). Critics of Laing frequently argued that he idealized and romanticized madness (especially the psychotic break that occurs in schizophrenia and other schizoid type disorders). Indeed, for Laing, madness often was an entirely reasonable attempt to deal with a difficult situation brought about particularly by stresses demanded from social conformity, economic conditions, and in particular the family life. Indeed, for Laing the family often was a means whereby violence was inflicted upon the individual (the family revolving around several ?enduring myths? which became cracked at the point of madness seen in schizophrenia for example). Using these sorts of theories, Laing argued that schizophrenia and other psychotic type disorders should be allowed to follow out their course, perhaps being a stage in a process necessary for individual growth. Thus, he opposed treatment which often included medication into a stupor, elec

"Give us bread but also give us roses"

For anyone who has been thrilled by any of Laing's books, as I had been, reading a biography of Laing can be a sad experience. Burston doesn't shrink from the disappointing aspects of Laing, but he finds great and continuing value in Laing's work while also reminding us of Laing's better side. Burston has divided the biograpy roughly in half. First comes the standard chronological presentation, then an analysis of Laing's thoughts and concerns. This meaty but quite readable analysis includes assessment of Laing's philosophical assumptions, his position on psychoanalysis, and his place within psychiatry. Burston effectively reminds us that, whatever his failings and however large his fall from popularity, Laing's work still presents challenges and promises values which we would be foolish to ignore. Blessed with a great mind, R.D. Laing also forged a wonderful heart: too many other therapists forget that our suffering needs both.

The Guru's Dilemma

This really should be read along with the biography by hy Ronald Laing's son, Adrian Laing. Adrian Laing is much more critical. Although he is a lawyer and Burston a psychologist, I think Adrian Laing shows more understanding of RD Laing's place in psychiatry. Both books are very readable (which is the reason for the 5 stars) because Laing's life makes makes a good story. By the end of the 1960's Laing was a dinosaur rather than an innovator. He was still blaming parents for their children's mental illness and advocating treating schizophrenia without medication. When I came to America in 1963 psychanalysis was dominant in psychiatry here. By the time time Laing died in 1989, psychanalysis was no longer taken seriously by most psychiatrists. I suspect that part of the reason for Laing's tragic self-destructive behavior came from the dawning realization that his treatment methods did not work for schizophrenia. Unlike Bateson and many of the American neo-Freudians, who were not MD's, he was a psychiatrist who undertook clinical responsibilities. Having set himself up, or been set up, as an omniscient healer he found he could not help those who turned to him.