NP RD Laing

[Paul Mackin]

On May 17, 2006, at 3:33 AM, mikebailey at speakeasy.net wrote:

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Paul Mackin [mailto:paul.mackin at verizon.net]
>> On May 16, 2006, at 9:22 AM, Ghetta Life wrote:
>>
>> These are two names out of the past. Don't hear much of them anymore
>> but in the sixties they were very fashionable, especially Laing.  His
>> view might have been roughly summarized as seeing psychosis as just
>> an alternative view of things. He never actually said that the
>> mentally ill were the truly sane ones,  I don't think. Put a lot of
>> stress of the (bad) effect of the family on the patient. Family
>> dynamics problem.
>>
>> Ran across Laing's name in currently reading Alan Bennett's "Untold
>> Stories." Bennett was  describing his mother's hospitalizations for
>> depression back in the sixties.  (Bennett of "Fringe" and "The
>> History Boys")
>
> From what little I've read, Laing ran a sort of 1/2 way house that  
> didn't depend on keeping people sedated, but on skilled moment-to- 
> moment interaction.
>
> I think the neighbors weren't really happy with it, he had to deal  
> with a subsidized medical bureaucracy in England, and there are  
> legitimate questions about how a benevolent/caring authority  
> structure is more labor-intensive (and perhaps harder for clients  
> to adapt to) than a traditional forceful/commanding  authority  
> structure, but the budget was small, the fees relatively low, and  
> he had some success.
>
> I can't quote the numbers from memory, so they probably weren't  
> super great - I admire his approach, so I'd remember supporting  
> evidence.
>
> Laing's book "Knots" is kind of a mind-bender.
>
> Looked up Alan Bennett in Wikipedia.  An astonishingly prolific  
> worker. I just realized, I used to watch a lot more English comedy  
> shows than I do lately.  Are there any good new ones?  Besides  
> Parliament, I mean... (-;

I still watch the OLD ones on PBS.

It's probably very difficult to get tickets to "The History Boys"  
during it's Bway run, but there'll be the movie with the same cast.  
The play's very funny and chock full of literary allusions. Just the  
thing for p-listers. Of course one theme of it  is the use and abuse  
of literary and cultural information.

Bennett is a very gentle person and doesn't speak harshly of Laing.   
However he definitely has problems with any strong view against the  
use of drugs and electro convulsive therapy in the treatment of  
mental illnesses. This is based on on B's mother's treatment for  
depression. She was helped by her several sessions of ECT and her  
family (Bennett and his father) was too. Bennett and Laing tended to  
see the family dynamics thing from opposite directions.


>
>
>>
>>>
>>> http://laingsociety.org/colloquia/psychotherapy/kjs1999sym.htm
>>> Laing's Existential-Humanistic Practice: What Was He Actually  
>>> Doing? 1
>>>
>
> thanks, will check that out.
>
>
>
>