Ronald David Laing, a British psychiatrist, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on October 7, 1927. He died in St. Tropez, France, on August 23, 1989.

The only child of strictly Presbyterian Scottish parents of modest means, Laing studied classics at Hutchison's Boy's Grammar School and medicine at university. To his medical peer group in Glasgow, Laing showed himself to be an extraordinarily gifted musician, scholar, and discussant. He introduced them to Freud. In a population still heavily influenced by puritan values and respectable civic expectations, his behavioral example and the range of his mind were exhilarating. As a final year student Laing opted to become an assistant on psychiatric wards. This, together with his immediate postgraduate training for six months, led to his being graded a psychiatrist throughout two years compulsory military service. At Netley Hospital he spent hours sitting with very disturbed patients and...