Classroom Talk
Spring - Summer 2002 Archive
Some background for those in the dark~ Posted by Sally on May 01, 2002 at 11:52:18:
In Reply to: Re: No more Mr. Nice Guy . . . coming soon! ;-) posted by Douglas on May 01, 2002 at 04:07:00:
'The requirement of the present, the failure of the past, is the same:
to provide a thoroughly self-conscious and self-critical human account
of man.'
The Politics of Experience~
( A late birthday present for Douglas via half.com, by the way.)
this website might be of interest to those of you who have no idea what
Douglas and Perk are "talking" about.
The UnOffical website~~~~
www. decaelo.com/rdlaing/
These pages are intended as a forum for the ideas of Ronald David
Laing, one of the most controversial figures of 20th Century psychology
and philosophy. His writings - a beguiling mix of psychoanalysis,
mysticism, existentialism and left-wing politics - make for powerful
and often disturbing reading; disturbing because they so clearly
demonstrate the extent to which the average human being is entrapped by
the pressures of social conformity.
His first book, The Divided Self, was an attempt to explain
schizophrenia by using existentialist philosophy to vividly portray the
inner world of a schizophrenic, which Laing presented as an attempt to
live in an unlivable situation. His later books, such as Self and
Others and The Politics of Experience, expand upon this to show how
contemporary culture conspires to rob us of our individuality.
Laing remains a highly enigmatic figure. His work tends to be dismissed
by most psychiatrists; however, droves of mentally ill people insist
that this was a man who truly understood how they felt. Laing always
insisted that psychotherapists should act as shamans, exorcising the
illness through a process of mutual catharsis. This is particularly
apt, since, like the archetypal shaman, Laing did not appear to so much
preach a doctrine as live it. His self-destructive tendencies and mood
swings are well documented. In 1989 he died of a heart attack at the
age of 62, his health ruined by years of depression and alcoholism.
Since Laing refused to view mental illness in biomedical/clinical
terms, he has often been labeled as part of the so-
called 'antipsychiatry' movement, alongside figures such as David
Cooper, Thomas Szasz and Michel Foucault. However, Laing vehemently
rejected this label. He never tried to deny that mentally ill people
are in need of help - he simply did not believe that conventional
psychiatry provided the answer. He was especially opposed to the use of
lobotomies, ECT and the dehumanising effects of incarceration in
psychiatric hospitals. Perhaps one of the clearest examples of Laing's
approach can be seen by an incident related in John Clay's book R.D.
Laing: A Divided Self.
While still in Chicago, Laing was invited by some doctors to examine a
young girl diagnosed as schizophrenic. The girl was locked into a
padded cell in a special hospital, and sat there naked. She usually
spent the whole day rocking to and fro. The doctors asked Laing for his
opinion. What would he do about her? Unexpectedly, Laing stripped off
naked himself and entered her cell. There he sat with her, rocking in
time to her rhythm. After about twenty minutes she started speaking,
something she had not done for several months. The doctors were
amazed. 'Did it never occur to you to do that?' Laing commented to them
later, with feigned innocence. (pp. 170-171)
- Phil Dore
Hope this helps, as I finally finished Politics of Experience, and felt
somewhat as Perks friend did, until I read some of his other "stuff".
Glad to see you are out there Douglas, bye all~
Sally ;-)
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