R d lang biography

Ronald David Laing, or R.D. Laing as he was known professionally, (October 7, – August 23, ), was a British psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illness, particularly psychosis.

Rd laing quotes

The development of his unorthodox views stemmed from early professional outrage with some of the practices he considered inhumane. Influenced by phenomenology and existential philosophy, his views went against the psychiatric orthodoxy of the time when he took the communications of the patient as representing valid descriptions of their reality rather than as symptoms of some separate, underlying disorder.

Although Laing was associated with the anti-psychiatry movement, like many of his contemporaries also critical of psychiatry, he himself rejected this label. His work on humane ways to treat psychotic patients made a significant contribution to the ethics of psychology.

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