R. D. Laing (1927–1989)

Presenting case studies of schizophrenic patients, Laing aims to make madness and the process of going mad comprehensible. He also offers an existential analysis of personal alienation.

In this book Laing sets up a paradigm by which all humans may be classified as either ontologically secure or insecure. In his own words: "A man may have a sense of his presence in the world as a real, alive, whole, and, in a temporal sense, continuous person. As such, he can live out into the world and meet show more others: a world and others experienced as equally real, alive, whole, and continuous" (Laing, 40). If a human being is ontologically insecure (even if that person believes he "has" faith, or belief) then that person cannot simultaneously experience others and self as equally real, alive, whole and continuous. This aberration of experience can be related to by all of us, whether we are currently experiencing it in greater or lesser degrees or have already taken substantial steps towards a security which is ontological in nature. Laing further explains that the ontologically insecure person will fall into either of two categories: the embodied or unembodied types. The person of the embodied type believes, in the face of confusion, ignorance and uncertainty, that he himself is real, and the rest of the world is somehow not. Unembodied types believe the opposite: that the world is tangible and essential, but they are intangible and unreal. People of this type, or who cycle from one type to the other "may feel more unreal than real; in a literal sense more dead than alive ..." (Laing, 71) In this way, it is easy to disregard the thoughts and feelings of strangers, enemies (real or perceived), and even loved ones. We most often relegate others and/or ourselves to categories of useful/useless, harmful/harmless, inferior/superior and thus reduce them and ourselves to objects, devoid of divinity and empty of all but the most selfish and animalistic potentialities. show less

Succinct and very readable account of the descent into schizophrenic psychosis, and how it develops from the 'normal' tendency to divide oneself between a 'true' inner self and a 'false' self or persona which is presented to the rest of the world. If the divide or conflict between the 'true' and 'false' selves becomes too extreme, this can develop into a schizoid split personality, and then can further descend into full-blown psychosis. Laing describes his approach as show more 'existential-phenomenological' and draws on sources including Heidegger, Husserl, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Camus, and Kafka. He traces several case studies, some in more depth than others, with chilling direct quotes from his patients. He also argues that it is crucial to consider not only the schizophrenic individual, but the 'schizophregenic' family, i.e. one that tends to reinforce the situations leading to full-blown schizophrenic psychosis. Hence he also discusses the reactions of family members and spouses. Laing wrote the 1st edition in 1956 when he was 28 and working as a physician at the Tavistock-Portman Clinic in Hampstead. show less

This book blew my world open. Yes, people become schizophrenic due to their environment. Yes, people can be driven to madness by their families, when they are told their pain is their fault, or not real, and they are isolated, and are forced to accept a reality that is not true to their experience. It is clear in each of these families how the individuals went crazy, and in their own way, are the sanest people in their families, and have moments of connected clarity about their family life show more and dynamics that the rest of the family is denying the reality of. This is an important book, that when taken seriously, is perhaps the truest and most accurate account of how a person becomes 'crazy'. Please read it. show less

As an early and historic example of thinking about the 'insane' or 'mental illness' in a different (not medicalised) way, Laing has done the world a great service in bringing ideas about the nature of human being from the world of existential philosophy together with his experience of 'schizophrenic' individuals in the context of their families.

If you work as a therapist, I would suggest this is a must-read, even if you take issue with Laing's ideas about schizophrenia. Psychiatrists, on show more the other hand, shouldn't read it, because it will upset them if they don't credit his viewpoint, and upset them even more if they do.

Among its flaws, it does get a little too caught up still with psychiatric concepts and speculation that aren't rooted in phenomenology, but he makes a very good attempt to bring the latter to bear on his case material. And in places he's a somewhat repetitive writer - but that also helps to solidify the ideas he's trying to get across.

Overall, in this book he sounds like someone you'd like to have at your side if your mind really took a wander off the beaten track - with his apparent capacity for patient and careful listening and fearless compassion. I imagine very few psychiatrists of his day would have had the time, courage or skills for that, and even less so nowadays in their hyper-pharmacological paradigm of trying to quickly anaesthetise mental and existential distress with pills. show less