Review of general psychiatry Book

Ronnie, Ronald, Laing, RD and R.D.Laing. His son, Adrian, one of Laing's ten children, here presents an account of the man's turbulent life. The Divided Self was almost compulsory reading for my generation and it is a metonym for all the other stuff that was going on in the 60s heads of the privileged western children. Laing comes across here as a sad character, violent, egotistical, highly charismatic and selfish. Gifted certainly, an accomplished musician by the childhood training his parents ensured he received, and very well read in the classics and theology. Much of his own thinking about psychiatry etc. was not original but synthesising currents around, although he had the gift of expressing ideas well. He was a guru to many for a short spell, a reputation he enjoyed living up to, did some good things like anyone else, did a lot of bad, and hit the bottle with a vengeance. Of course, this is a deeply personal account by Adrian, but well researched using some 200 sources, but it throws light on the theories and practices of a man unable to heal himself of what is roughly called lifelong depression nor the many divisions within: as such a case study of a mind not at peace. Of course, Laing's ideas are separate from all this.