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Studies in existential analysis and phenomenology

by R. D. Laing
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4.5
2 ratings
2
BOOKS
402
PAGES
~6h 42min
READING TIME

About Author

R. D. Laing

Ronald David Laing (7 October 1927 – 23 August 1989), usually cited as R. D. Laing, was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illness, particularly psychosis and schizophrenia. Politically, Laing was regarded as a thinker of the New Left. He has been theatrically portrayed by Mike Maran, Alan Cox, Billy Mack, and David Tennant in the 2017 film Mad to Be Normal. Laing's views on the causes and treatment of psychopathological phenomena were influenced by his study of existential philosophy and ran counter to the chemical and electroshock methods that had become psychiatric orthodoxy. Laing took the expressed feelings of the individual patient or client as valid descriptions of personal experience rather than simply as symptoms of mental illness.

Description

Existential therapy is a form of psychotherapy focused on the client's lived experience of their subjective reality. The aim is for clients to use their freedom to live authentic fulfilled lives. Existentialist traditions maintain: People are fundamentally free to shape their lives and are responsible for their choices, even under difficult circumstances. Distress around existential concerns—such as death, isolation, freedom, and the search for meaning—are not pathological, but natural parts of the human condition and potential catalysts for living more authentically. An emphasis on exploring the client's subjective world and lived experience, rather than providing an authoritative interpretation of what feelings mean.

How the series evolves

beginning
The divided self
4.5· strong start
finale
Reason & violence
0.0· messes up the ending
overall
2.3· better in the beginning

Books in this Series

The divided self

R. D. Laing
4.5 (2)
1

First published in 1960, this watershed work aimed to make madness comprehensible, and in doing so revolutionized the way we perceive mental illness. Using case studies of patients he had worked with, psychiatrist R. D. Laing argued that psychosis is not a medical condition but an outcome of the 'divided self', or the tension between the two personas within us: one our authentic, private identity, and the other the false, 'sane' self that we present to the world.

Reason & violence

R. D. Laing
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