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

Laing was the psychologist of the left in the 1960s and '70s, an opponent of the Freudians and behaviorists and of lobotomies, electric shock therapies and the incarceration of psychotics. Like Thomas Szasz, he viewed madness as a social construct, and in The Divided Self, his most widely acclaimed book, he characterizes schizophrenia as a sane response to an insane world. People go mad because they involuntarily repudiate the constriction of their social roles, and in the healing process (""metanoia"") a new personality may emerge, anchored in the real self. Burston, a psychology professor at Duquesne University, astutely analyzes this view of psychotic breakdown as ontological crisis. He also selects significant biographical events that helped form Laing's ideas--including his rejection by a disturbed mother who forcefully separated him from whatever he loved. Burston takes us though florid periods of LSD and alcohol, through Laing's neo-Platonism and existentialism, and his superstar identity as therapist, mystic, maverick and guru. He treats Laing's psychological theories respectfully, however, and sees merit in the view that psychotic episodes can lead to a more authentic mode of existence. As Laing wrote: ""Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be breakthrough."" (Aug.)