R.D. Laing: Contemporary Perspectives

Raschid, Salman

ISBN 10: 1853437018 / ISBN 13: 9781853437014

Published by Free Association Books, 2005

Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. A copy that has been read but remains in clean condition. All of the pages are intact and the cover is intact and the spine may show signs of wear. The book may have minor markings which are not specifically mentioned. Seller Inventory # rev9271200330

Synopsis:

This unique volume aims to re-establish R. D. Laing's position, and reputation, as the major critic of orthodox, medically-based, psychiatry. Laing's complex personality enabled powerful figures in the British psychiatric establishment to malign him when he was at the height of his fame, largely because Laing's ideas, and public posture, posed a formidable threat to their medical authority. As critic Peter Sedgwick had observed, Laing's work was capable of considerable further development. He related mainstream psychiatry's indebtedness to Laing to the fact that no rival approach possessed any dynamic or momentum of comparable power. Additionally, Laing's theories of schizophrenia had been powerfully aided "by the distinguished cultural and philosophical apparatus in which they reposed". Subsequent events have proved Sedgwick right, and this book is a record of continuing developments (in theory and practice) of the main corpus of Laing's work, and an adumbration of likely future developments. The disciplines involved cover, or implicate, such distinct areas of intellectual inquiry as psychiatry (including neurobiology), psychotherapy, philosophy and anthropology. Contributors include Luc Ciompi, Loren Mosher and Louis Sass.

Bibliographic Details

Title: R.D. Laing: Contemporary Perspectives
Publisher: Free Association Books
Publication Date: 2005
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Good