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.

Genres: Biography, Psychology, Nonfiction

118 pages, Paperback

Published January 12, 2017

About the author

David Courtney Boyle was a British author and journalist who wrote mainly about history and new ideas in economics, money, business, and culture. He lived in Steyning in West Sussex.
He conducted an independent review for the Treasury and the Cabinet Office on public demand for choice in public services which reported in 2013. Boyle was a co-founder and policy director of Radix, which he characterized in 2017 as a radical centrist think tank. He was also co-director of the mutual think tank New Weather Institute.

Reviews

[Terry Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed for Rosie Amber's Book Review Team

The name R D Laing is one that I've often seen around, probably on my parents' bookshelves, too, but I've never really known who he was. I've long been sceptical about psychiatric diagnoses, so this book piqued my interest. It's only novella length, so I knew it wouldn't be a huge chore to get through if I didn't like it. Happily, I did.

Laing was an unorthodox Scottish psychiatrist who challenged methods of psychiatric treatment during the 1940s and 50s, was greatly influenced by existential philosophy and became a cult figure in the 1960s. This book is not long enough to be a biography; it's more an overview of his life and an examination of his principles, theories and work in relation to the trends of the time. David Boyle writes intelligently, clearly and in language plain enough for the general reader with no knowledge of the subject. He gives a few instances of Laing's experiments when working in psychiatric hospitals, such as this one: '...In one ward, he reduced the drugs to practically zero and locked the door. In the first week of the experiment, about 30 windows were smashed. Nobody was hurt, so from the second week onwards he unlocked the doors and found there was no rush to leave, and the windows stayed intact ... it was being locked up that they resented.'

Like others of his brilliance, philosophies, era and convention-challenging ideas, Laing sank heavily into the bottle and became something of a caricature of himself. I was interested in much of what Boyle touched upon, found myself constantly nodding and highlighting passages, and will find out more, I am sure, probably from the bibliography at the back. This mini-bio ends at 87%, after which there is the beginning of another work by David Boyle, and a list of others, which I was interested enough to look at.

'He had a complete lack of interest in any kind of small talk or going through the social motions'. Hang on while I go and look him up on YouTube...

[Yvonne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not my usual reading genre, but after seeing it around and also reading a fellow reviewers blog, I decided to give it a go.

This story charts the rise of Laing, from large audiences and followers who listened to his ideas on mental health reformation, to the depressed LSD drug taking, alcoholic who occasionally got into fights. The treatment of patients in Mental Institutes was cruel and inhumane. He disagreed with the practices and fought to change them, disagreeing with the use of ECT, Electro Convulsive Therapy, No talking policy and lobotomy's. It is mainly schizophrenia that is dealt with in this book, and charts his alternative ideas he had on treatment. Laing was born in Glasgow, his grandfather and father had mental problems in their 50's, his mother seems to always have had problems. His use of LSD was to relive past memories, his alcoholism didn't stop until almost the end of his life.

This is a well laid out book and a lot of things have been explored in it, but only scratching the surface. I feel it would be a good book for someone of little knowledge of psychiatry and there is not an overuse of jargon. It is a basic account of Laing, his theories, beliefs and work.

[Susan Hampson · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a time when people suffering from mental health illnesses were forcibly locked away and given little thought. They were subjected to electric shock treatments, drugged up until they no longer really functioned and much worse. They weren’t consulted about treatments or listened to. That was until Ronald Laing with his controversial theories and therapies spoke out in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Ronald Laing had a very traumatic childhood with parents that were far from normal but if that is all you have known you accept it without question. It is only with talking to others that you would know your childhood wasn’t like theirs. The world of psychiatrists became divided as to whether Laing was a revolutionary genius or a mad man.  Laing had a fascination with brain function and stripped everything back to basics. Minimised drugs and literally flung open doors of mental institutions but more than anything he talked to people and listened to them.
Laing definitely had his own demons though with his strange childhood, alcohol addition and frequent LSD usage. He went from super star status to discredited.
David Boyle’s novel is a well balanced look at the difference one man can have on society as although not all of Laing’s methods were taken on board things did change and move some what away from the medieval ways of lock them up and throw away the key method even if Laing isn’t credited for it.

[Lyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, short biography. Doesn't go into too much detail (a good thing, in my opinion - makes it easier to stay interested), but mentions many interesting ideas of Ronald Laing. Psychology is an interesting thing; I might have liked it a little better if it focused a little more on the psychology side of Laing, rather than his family at times, but I can't complain. It wasn't bad.
Note: I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways.

[David Highton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short biography of R. D. Laing - a psychiatrist who became an iconic figure in the mid-60s raging against the world of psychiatry as it was practised and who fell from grace from the early 70s onwards. A well-contextualised summary from David Boyle about a figure I had heard of but knew little about, I was probably 5 years too young to catch his most public years.

[Kendra Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda dry.

[Albertine67 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this via Goodreads. It was okay but I had expected a book of greater depth.

[Suze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ronald Laing was a psychiatrist who started his career in the army and became famous in the second half of the twentieth century. His ideas were ground-breaking, his research methods innovative and his treatment plans progressive. He became famous and then infamous. However, his ideas are still out there and his influence has never completely vanished. Ronald Laing had a turbulent career and even though he fell from grace eventually, there's a lot we can still learn from him today.

David Boyle describes Ronald Laing's career in a fascinating way. He explains his decisions, gives a bit of background information and combines praise and criticism to paint a complete picture. His explanations are vivid and easily understandable. I loved that his book can be read by anyone, no matter if there's any previous knowledge of the subject or not. His writing is accessible and I was immediately intrigued by the achievements of Ronald Laing. I especially enjoyed reading about his approach of diagnostics, which was both brave and advanced. His life was tumultuous, both on a personal as a professional level, which is something David Boyle's detailed and engaging writing made me feel from beginning to end.

Ronald Laing: The Rise and Fall and Rise of a Revolutionary Psychiatrist is a quick read. It's short enough to read in one sitting and it brings clear and useful information about an icon in the psychiatric world. It's a great introduction into the ideas and work of an interesting man. It's also an ideal way to refresh one's knowledge in a short period of time. David Boyle combines captivating writing with plenty of useful information, which works very well. I like his writing style and would definitely read more of his work.

[Olga Miret · Rating 5 out of 5]

An insightful and clear introduction to Laing’s life and work in time for his rediscovery 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.

[Jackie Law · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ronald Laing, by David Boyle, is a short biographical study of the Scottish psychiatrist, who enjoyed a brief period of fame and notoriety in the 1960s and 70s before the existentialism of the era gave way to the monetarism of the Thatcher years. Straplined The rise and fall and rise of a revolutionary psychiatrist, the author explores what drove the doctor to work towards changing the way patients with mental illnesses are treated. Laing was not alone in this endeavour but his work was influential.

In the 1950s, when Laing first started to practice medicine, the mentally ill were incarcerated in large institutions run for the benefit of their staff and society rather than patients. The traumatised inmates were routinely drugged, subjected to ECT and, occasionally, lobotomised in an attempt to control and then standardise their behaviour. They were often treated with contempt by those tasked with deciding on treatment.

“When cruelties are permitted on people or animals, it seems to lead to active dislike among those charged with their care.”

Laing’s approach favoured cutting back on drugs, improving accommodation and autonomy, and listening to what patients had to say. He believed that mental healing could occur with minimum intervention given time and the right conditions. He questioned the definition of madness arguing for greater acceptance of difference. Such radical notions were frowned upon by the medical establishment but fitted well with emerging societal tolerance for individualism and freedom.

The decades in which Laing lived were pivotal to the acceptance and then rejection of his ideas. His personal development was also a factor. Laing took LSD and suffered from alcoholism. He was volatile and something of a philanderer. His fall from grace was exacerbated by his personal behaviour.

The book is divided into sections charting the milestones in Laing’s career and the context in which these occured. With my interest in psychology and sociology I found it fascinating.

“For Laing and his closest collaborators, we are all isolated individuals. He used to speak of trying to divest himself of all forms of collective identity. It was the collective categorisation that Laing raged against, especially of those in mental distress.”

Laing died aged sixty-one having fathered ten children and published numerous books. His work continues to influence psychiatric thinking even if aspects have been discredited. The author mulls what he would have made of the standardisations imposed today on medical diagnosis and treatment, as well as on other areas of life such as education.

A film about Laing’s life titled Mad to be Normal and starring David Tennant has recently gone on general release. This book would provide an excellent introduction and background for interested viewers.

[Elizabeth Best · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting short read about R. D Laing, an influential psychiatrist of his time.