Hi all:
Today I bring you another one of the reviews I’ve written as part of Rosie’s Book Review Team (don’t forget to visit her blog, here). As a psychiatrist, I could not resist this one.
Ronald Laing: The rise and fall and rise of a radical psychiatrist by David Boyle
The radical psychiatrist R. D. Laing took the world by storm in the 1960s and 1970s with his ideas about madness, families and people’s need for authenticity. At the height of his fame, he could fill stadiums like Bob Dylan and often did so. He became an icon of the movement that held psychiatry to be an agency of repression, his phrases on a million hippy T-shirts. Then he fell from grace, flung out of the medical profession, and his influence has been waning since. His basic ideas have been regarded as having been discredited. Yet, despite this, his influence is also everywhere – but largely unnoticed and unremarked.
This book tells the extraordinary human story of his struggle, first with the authorities as a psychiatrist in the army and then a series of mental hospitals. It explains his extraordinary influence in the context of the upheavals of those psychedelic days – and it looks at what we can still learn from Laing today. Boyle finds he still has an unexpectedly potent message.
Links:
https://www.amazon.com/Ronald-Laing-rise-radical-psychiatrist-ebook/dp/B01N4OO83K/
I know the publishing company is organising events and giveaways so don’t forget to visit and click the links:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ronald-Laing-rise-radical-psychiatrist/dp/0993523986/
About the author:
I live in the South Downs, in Sussex, and write in a small green hut at the end of the garden – mainly about history, politics, economics and the future. I find that history now absorbs me the most, from Richard the Lionheart to Enigma and with a great deal in between. I try to recapture some of the spirit, even the magic, of the past – I’ve also written quite widely about fairies (I find this doesn’t sit easily with writing about economics, but I still wrestle with holding the two sides together…).
I’ve found myself more recently writing about codes and the navy, which is a lifelong fascination, and – most recently – writing about family members as well, in Unheard, Unseen (about early submarines) and my great-great-grandfather is the central figure in Scandal.
But then, where the magic and the economics can potentially come together is in fiction – notably in my Leaves the World to Darkness (fairies) and The Piper (money).
https://www.amazon.com/David-Boyle/e/B000APQC2K/
My review:
I’m writing this review as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team. I was provided with an ARC copy of the book that I voluntarily chose to review.
I’m a psychiatrist and although I studied Medicine in Spain I have trained as a psychiatrist in the UK. Despite that, R.D. Laing and his ideas weren’t a part of our curriculum (I don’t know if things have changed now, as that was almost 25 years ago). During one of my training jobs, one of the psychotherapy tutors showed us a recording of an interview with R.D. Laing and he talked to us about him. He came across as a fascinating man with very interesting ideas, quite contrary to the standard focus on biological psychiatry, evidence-based interventions and emphasis on classification and symptoms rather than people. I read several of his books at the time and although I was fascinated by his ideas I didn’t have the time to study his figure and the rest of his work in detail.
This short book (the text takes up around 88% of the book as after that there are some extracts from other books from the same publisher, The Real Press) does an excellent job of highlighting both the person (the biography is succinct but it manages to include the salient points of his family life, his work experience and how both influenced his ideas) and his works. It also places Laing’s figure in its historical and socio-political era, linking it to other thinkers and movements of the time (hippy movement, antipsychiatry, existentialism, LSD culture…). Due to its length, it is not an exhaustive study of the individual works but it presents a good overview that will allow those who’ve never heard of R.D. Laing to gain some familiarity with his life and his work, and will bring together loose ends for those who might have read some of his works but don’t know how they fit into his career (because, as the author points out, some of Laing’s books are very difficult to understand). This text also provides a good guide to students interested in going deeper into Laing’s work and offers suggestions for further reading (both of Laing’s own works and of works about him). The book is being launched to coincide with the premier of a movie about Laing called ‘Mad to Be Normal’ starring David Tennant, and it should be a great complement to those who might come out of the movie intrigued and wanting to know more without embarking on complex theoretical books (that are very much of their time).
Boyle does a great job of extracting the most important aspects of Laing’s work and life and shows a good understanding and empathy towards the man and his ideas. Rather than focus exclusively on the most scandalous aspects of his life, he emphasises his care for patients, his own disturbed childhood, and how he insisted patients were unique and not just cogs in a machine that had to learn to show the required and accepted behaviour. Although many of his ideas have been discredited, his feelings about the profession and his insistence on listening to patients and putting their needs first resonate today as much as they did at the time. Personally, I’m pleased to see his figure is being re-evaluated. Never too soon.
Laing is one of these people whose life and scandals throw a big shadow over his work, but this book and, hopefully, the movie, might help new generations to rediscover him.
I could not resist but share a bit of one of the interviews with R.D. Laing (there are quite a few much longer on YouTube if you’re interested):
And the trailer of the movie Mad to Be Normal
Thanks so much to Rosie and to The Real Press for the copy of the book, thanks to all of you for reading and remember to like, share, comment and CLICK!
Thank you Olga.
Thank, Rosie! A great little book!
Sounds like a fascinating man and as usual Olga an excellent review..
Thanks, Sally. I hope to be able to catch up with the movie too. Yes, fascinating is right. His ideas are very much of his time but some of his early work and his approach to patients should not be forgotten.
I can understand why this would be an interesting read for you, Olga. I was around at the time of course, but cannot remember hearing about Laing, though I might well recognise some of his quotes or thoughts, in isolation. I hope that David does well with his book, but I fear it may be in the very definition of a ‘niche market’.
Best wishes, Pete.
Yes, I think you’re right. One probably needed to be in that circle or in mental health to know about him. Perhaps the movie will revive the interest in him. Have a great Tuesday, Pete!
Sounds like a fascinating book. I’d quite like to see the film but I don’t think I could cope with David Tennant’s rolling eyeballs!
If there is a part where one should roll one’s eyeballs is probably this one! Thanks, Mary and have a great day!
A fascinating topic, Olga. Thanks for your perspective. Hugs.
Thank you, Teagan. I hope your day went well.
Hmm, I read The Divided Self way back in the 1970s. This was long before I ever thought of studying Psychology. I thought it was brilliant at the time. Since then I have come across many people – parents – damaged by the presumption that the the mental illnesses of their children were entirely their fault. It will be great if the good and the bad in his legacy can be separated.
Mothers, in particular, seem to be always to blame too, Hilary. I know what you mean and I think the best what how he tried to understand patients and the work he did with them. Some of his theories, like much of analysis, for me, are a bit too subjective and very much related to the personality and thoughts of the analyst but then, I’ve never gone down that road. I’m sure it has been useful to some people. Thanks, Hilary!