Sanity, Madness and the Family: Families of Schizophrenics

by Aaron Esterson and R.D. Laing

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140211578
• ISBN13: 9780140211573
• Release Date: July 1970
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Absolutely fascinating; painfully relevant

A truly compelling & accesible read to illuminate the origins of what was called "schizophrenia" in the 20th century! For readers who have experienced psychiatric abuse, it will have you spellbound; is the patient sick, or is the whole family mad? Laing & Esterson offer a narrative voice to connect transcribed conversations between family members of an allegedly ill patient - one family per chapter, each chapter hard to put down. They let the families do the talking, and write only to provide necessary context taken from conversations with the families. All told, it is a study in interpersonal experience, duty, loneliness, the confusion that torments the young, the restrictions placed upon girls as they try to grow up, and the psychology of the person who must find a way to live whole in an unlivable situation that tries to fragment them. I saw my own family in the pages; you may, too!

This book helped me understand my family

My father was Asperger like myself. My mother was schizogenic. Not schizophrenic but schizogenic: A refrigerator mother totally impervious to the needs of her children. Never once in her life did she kiss or hug any of us, and we were raised by the maids. To be fair with her, she did take an interest in us when we were sick. I remember that being sick was like visiting Disneyland. My brother is schizophrenic and he has spent several years of his life in the loony bin. All my seven sisters are downright crazy. Even if they do not hear voices or see hallucinations, there is something very wrong with all of them. One of them reads the bible 24/7 and speaks "in languages". A couple of them appear on the surface to be OK, but have done things throughout their lives that defy understanding. One let her children hang out with a well known homosexual pedophile, and even wanted to marry him. Another induces her two daughters toward promiscuity. Her younger daughter already has herpes and who knows what else. Another thing I have to point out is that although all my sisters are downright crazy, none of them is schizogenic. None of them was impervious toward their children, and none of their children ever went crazy. But one of my nieces, the daughter of my bible reader sister, is conspicuously impervious toward her children, and one of her sons is quite weird. I would not be surprised if he goes nuts when he grows up. It fits the pattern. The shrink I had the misfortune to know, the only thing that interested him was squeezing as much money as possible from his patients with endless sessions of "therapy", and seducing his female patients. One of my sisters fell for him, and she still considers him the love of her life. (I don't believe her late husband ever got wind of this). Some professions breed dishonesty. I consider psychiatrists to be at the top of the list, along with lawyers and politicians. The point of this paragraph being, I believe that bad parenting schizogenia theories became so popular 50 years ago because psychiatrists had an overwhelming monetary incentive: To put the blame of schizophrenia on bad parenting meant tons of money in family "therapy". Now to the book: Even though bad parenting schizogenia hypotheses have been totally discredited, the scientists' field observations are still valid and genetic schizogenia is a fact of life. The genes of schizophrenia impinge on all family members in varying degrees of severity, and on the mother of the future patient, in this different and strange way. No need to mention that this book is a must if you want a better understanding of schizophrenia. Even if you do not have the stomach to finish it, you will get a taste of what our families are like. Schizophrenia is preventable today by giving low doses of antipsychotic medication to the suspected future victim. I cannot help wonder if the same doses would soften the hearts of schizogenic mothers. PS. I once read on a psychiatric journal at

This book helped me understand my family

My father was autistic. My mother was schizogenic. Not schizophrenic but schizogenic: A refrigerator mother totally impervious to the needs of her children. Never once in her life did she kiss or hug any of us, and we were raised by the maids. To be fair with her, she did take an interest in us when we were sick. I remember that being sick was like visiting Disneyland. My brother is schizophrenic and he has spent several years of his life in the loony bin. All my seven sisters are downright crazy. Even if they do not hear voices or see hallucinations, there is something very wrong with all of them. One of them reads the bible 24/7 and speaks "in languages". A couple of them appear on the surface to be OK, but have done things throughout their lives that defy understanding. One let her children hang out with a well known homosexual pedophile, and even wanted to marry him. Another induces her two daughters toward promiscuity. The younger one already has herpes. Another thing I have to point out is that although all my sisters are downright crazy, none of them is schizogenic. None of them was impervious toward their children, and none of their children ever went crazy. But one of my nieces, the daughter of my bible reader sister, is conspicuously impervious toward her children, and one of her sons is quite weird. I would not be surprised if he goes nuts when he grows up. It fits the pattern. I am Asperger myself, thanks to my father. I have never noticed any schizophrenic traits in myself, but who knows? They are probably there also. The shrink I had the misfortune to know, the only thing that interested him was squeezing as much money as possible from his patients with endless sessions of "therapy", and seducing his female patients. One of my sisters fell for him, and she still considers him the love of her life. (I don't believe her husband ever got wind of this). Some professions breed dishonesty. I consider psychiatrists to be at the top of the list, along with lawyers and politicians. The point of this paragraph being, I believe that bad parenting schizogenia theories became so popular 50 years ago because psychiatrists had an overwhelming monetary incentive: To put the blame of schizophrenia on bad parenting meant tons of money of family "therapy". Now to the book: Even though bad parenting schizogenia hypotheses have been totally discredited, the scientists' field observations are still valid and genetic schizogenia is a fact of life. The genes of schizophrenia impinge on all family members in varying degrees of severity, and on the mother of the future patient, in this different and strange way. No need to mention that this book is a must if you want a better understanding of schizophrenia. Even if you do not have the stomach to finish it, you will get a taste of what our families are like. Schizophrenia is preventable today by giving low doses of antipsychotic medication to the suspected future victim. I cannot help wonder if the sam

Great Classic

A bright star in the constellation bridging the literary and philosophic psychiatry of the past to the psycho-pharmacological dominated present.

A Testimony of Schizophrenia

Famed psychiatrist R. D. Laing gives a study of eleven families and thier children whom are schizophrenic. Laing gives no interjections, but rather lets the conversations that the families have amongst themselves give their own testimony. Laing lets the reader know where language patterns occur, in which he believes is largely due to the psychic split. The "double bind" theory introduced by Gregory Bateson, in which the child has been given mixed messages. In the cases given, the studies are all female, and the mothers are usually the aggressor, while the father the passive, and if other siblings are included, they usually side with the mother against the sibling. Shocking, sad and enlightening all together, Laing gives a great look on how schizophrenic in this light can and does occur. Highly reccomended and should be read by all psychologists entering or in the field (it is a shame that this book, like so many of R.D. Laings books are out of print). One should include with this book Gregory Batesons "Steps to an Ecology of Mind" which includes the essay which explains the "double bind."

Madness and Sanity is Bio - Logical

That is to say there are logical means to schizophrenia, and nothing that confers to a physical disability. An amazing study of eleven families and the children who are hospitalized because of their "illness" (incidentally noted, they are all female patients). Dr. Laing and Dr. Esertons account of schizophrenia all points to the facts that this mental illness is not a physical impairment, but a distrust in a persons reality, through communication, through insecurity of beliefs and senses. Schizophrenics choose logically and intelligently under the confines of family life with the parents (who are more delussional than the patient). Although this book is primarily a psychological study, it reads like a novel.