Portrait of the psychiatrist as a young man

the early writing and work of r.d. laing, 1927–1960

Sharon Packer

pp. 411-415

in: Alexander Batthyány (ed), Logotherapy and existential analysis, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

Even those who do not like Laing will love Beveridge's book about Laing. The reasons to relish this book? It does not convert non-believers into believers, but it contains a wealth of data, and contextualizes Laing's iconoclastic ideas about psychiatry into the currents of his times. Beveridge convinces us that Laingianism was a reaction to the excesses of 50s' era biologically based psychiatry, and that it was spiced up by a wide range of influences, from Buber's I and Thou, to Anton Chekhov's Ward No. 6, to his native Scotland, with its divided Highlands and Lowlands, plus his psychotic mother.