R D Laing

R. D. Laing (Ronald David Laing) , 1927-89, British psychiatrist. After studying at Univ. of Glasgow (M.D., 1951), he taught there (1953-56), later moving to the Tavistock Clinic and Institute of Human Relations (1956-89) to conduct research on schizophrenia. He directed the Langham Clinic in London (1962-65), and founded a therapeutic community in which the hierachical distinction between physicians and patients was essentially eliminated. Laing maintained the controversial position that schizophrenia was a culturally conditioned, internal conflict, a reaction particularly to poor relations among family members. His works include The Divided Self (1960) and his autobiography, The Making of a Psychiatrist (1985).

Laing, R.D. ( Ronald David) (1927–1989) Scottish psychiatrist. He was an exponent of existential psychology and produced radical work on the nature of schizophrenia. He believed that the mentally ill are not necessarily maladapted: a psychotic disorder may be a reasonable reaction to the stresses of the world and of difficult family relationships.

Laing, R. D. (1927–89) The best-known British anti-psychiatrist. Laing's overriding emphasis was on the intelligibility of madness. 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.