The Wing of Madness : The Life and Work of R.D. Laing

Daniel Burston

ISBN 10: 0674953592 / ISBN 13: 9780674953598

Published by Harvard University Press Jan 1998, 1998

About this Item

Neuware - Daniel Burston chronicles Laing's meteoric rise to fame as one of the first media psychogurus of the century, and his spiraling decline in the late seventies and eighties. Here are the successes: Laing's emergence as a unique voice on the psychiatric scene with his first book,

Seller Inventory # 9780674953598

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Wing of Madness : The Life and Work of R.D. Laing
• Publisher: Harvard University Press Jan 1998
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674953592
• ISBN 13: 9780674953598
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 237W x 163H x 21D millimeters 237 millimeters width by 163 millimeters height by 21 millimeters depth
• Weight: 414 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Daniel Burston chronicles Laing's meteoric rise to fame as one of the first media psychogurus of the century, and his spiraling decline in the late seventies and eighties. Here are the successes: Laing's emergence as a unique voice on the psychiatric scene with his first book, The Divided Self, in 1960; his forthright and articulate challenges to conventional wisdom on the origins, meaning, and treatment of mental disturbances; his pioneering work on the families of schizophrenics, Sanity, Madness and the Family (coauthored with A. Esterson). Here as well are Laing's more dubious moments, personal and professional, including the bizarre experiment with psychotic patients at Kingsley Hall. Burston traces many of Laing's controversial ideas and therapeutic innovations to a difficult childhood and adolescence in Glasgow and troubling experiences as an army doctor; he also offers a measured assessment of these ideas and techniques.

The R. D. Laing who emerges from these pages is a singular combination of skeptic and visionary, an original thinker whose profound contradictions have eclipsed the true merit of his work. In telling his story, Burston gives us an unforgettable portrait of an anguished human being and, in analyzing his work, recovers Laing's achievement for posterity.

About the Author

Daniel Burston is Associate Professor of Psychology at Duquesne University.