In ‘The Politics of Experience’ and the visionary ‘Bird of Paradise’, R.D. Laing shows how the straitjacket of conformity imposed on us all leads to intense feelings of alienation and a tragic waste of human potential. He throws into question the notion of normality, examines schizophrenia and psychotherapy, transcendence and ‘us and them’ thinking, and illustrates his ideas with a remarkable case history of a ten-day psychosis. ‘We are bemused and crazed creatures,’ Laing suggests. This o...

Originally published in 1970*, Knots* consists of a series of dialogue-scenarios that can be read as poems or brief plays, each complete in itself. Each chapter describes a different kind of relationship: the "knots" of the title: bonds of love, dependency, uncertainty, jealousy. The dialogues could be those between lovers, between parents and children, between analysts and patients or all of these merged together. Each brilliantly demonstrates Laing's insights into the intricacies of huma...

The now legendary Dialectics of Liberation congress, held in London in 1967, was a unique expression of the politics of dissent. Existential psychiatrists, Marxist intellectuals, anarchists, and political leaders met to discuss key social issues. Edited by David Cooper, The Dialectics of Liberation compiles interventions from congress contributors Stokely Carmichael, Herbert Marcuse, R. D. Laing, Paul Sweezy, and others, to explore the roots of social violence.Aga...

The Divided Self, R.D. Laing's groundbreaking exploration of the nature of madness, illuminated the nature of mental illness and made the mysteries of the mind comprehensible to a wide audience.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 c...

In the late 1950s the psychiatrist R.D.Laing and psychoanalyst Aaron Esterson spent five years interviewing eleven families of female patients diagnosed as 'schizophrenic'. Sanity, Madness and the Family is the result of their work. Eleven vivid case studies, often dramatic and disturbing, reveal patterns of affection and fear, manipulation and indifference within the family. But it was the conclusions they drew from their research that caused such controversy: they suggest that s...

Originally published in 1969, based on the talks R. D. Laing gave in 1967 and 68, this book was intended by the author to evoke questions rather than provide answers. Using concepts of schizophrenia, R.D. Laing demonstrates that we tend to invalidate the subjective and experiential and accept the proper societal view of what should occur within the family.

Originally published in 1961 this book is divided into two parts. In the first Laing critiques the Kleinian view of unconsciou phantasy, as developed by Susan Sutherland Isaacs. He emphasizes the overwhelming presence of social phantasy systems. In Part 2, Laing discusses the extent to which an individual is or is not invested in their own actions, using ideas drawn from Martin Buber and Sartre

A classic study which, by synthesizing the approaches of psychoanalysis and group dynamics, has added a new dimension to the understanding of group phenomena.

Essentially clinical in its approach, Psychic Retreats discusses the problem of patients who are 'stuck' and with whom it is difficult to make meaningful contact. John Steiner, an experienced psychoanalyst, uses new developments in Kleinian theory to explain how this happens.He examines the way object relationships and defences can be organized into complex structures which lead to a personality and an analysis becoming rigid and stuck, with little opportunity for developm...

Seeing and Being Seen: Emerging from a Psychic Retreat examines the themes that surface when considering clinical situations where patients feel stuck and where a failure to develop impedes the progress of analysis.This book analyses the anxieties and challenges confronted by patients as they begin to emerge from the protection of psychic retreats. Divided into three parts, areas of discussion include:embarrassment, shame, and humiliationh...

In this classic work, internationally known Viennese psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl, founder of the school of logotherapy, sets forth the principles of existential psychiatry. He holds that man's search for meaning in existence is a primary facet of his being; if the search is unrequited, it leads to neurosis. The role of the therapist, then, is to help the patient discover a purposefulness in life.

Even in the degradation and misery of Dachau concentration camp, Viktor Frankl retained the belief that the most important freedom of all is the freedom to determine one's own spiritual well-being. He wrote the international bestseller Man's Search for Meaning as a result of that experience, while in The Doctor and the Soul, Dr Frankl revolutionised psychotherapy with his theory of Logotherapy.Viktor Frankl's work has been described as "the most important contribu...