The Wing of Madness: The Life and Work of R.D. Laing

By age 15, R.D. Laing (1927-1989) was reading the works of Voltaire, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud--perhaps to escape from his brutal upbringing,or perhaps to understand it. A British Army psychiatrist by age 20, Laing sat with schizophrenics in their cells, trying to decipher the "environmental" source of their malady. Rather than pass it off to neurobiology, Laing believed that emotional misery stemmed from experiences, particularly those within the family. His work at the Institute of Psycho-Analysis in London led to many books on the subject including Self and Others. Daniel Burston shows how unconventional thinking took him to the top in his field, then eventually led to his demise.