Laing, Ronald D.
Laing, Ronald D. (1927–89)The best-known British anti-psychiatrist. Laing's overriding emphasis was on the intelligibility of madness. Drawing on existentialism, his books explored individual subjectivity (The Divided Self, 1960), interpersonal and family dynamics (The Self and Others, 1961; Sanity, Madness and the Family, 1963), and the wider social context, including the values involved in judgements of sanity and madness (The Politics of Experience, 1966). Though he subsequently renounced his more radical views, his ideas still attract attention, and remain controversial. His autobiography, Wisdom, Madness and Folly (1985) recounts his first thirty years.
[The entire page is 109 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
