Wisdom, Madness and Folly: The Making of a Psychiatrist

by R.D. Laing

Book Overview

Set in a European context, but written in the style of a Scottish radicalist, the author recounts his own upbringing as well as his personal and professional insights, questioning the role of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0333402502
• ISBN13: 9780333402504
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: Macmilan & Co
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Laing's writing style is easy & colloquial.

I read this about 10 years ago & have recently read it again. Laing's writing is easy & colloquial, more like conversation than some exercise with a thesaurus. Laing reviews the state of psychiatry today (1985) & reviews the events in his life that helped shape his iconoclastic views of medicine & society. He eschews the term "anti-psychiatry," seemingly preferring not to name or "institutionalize" his process & praxis for psychiatry. By the end of this book, Laing & his views seem incredibly human & humane, & one wonders, Why aren't all psychiatrists like Laing? Early on, Laing cites the changing psychiatric view in Italy; the new edition of WM & F coincides with the 20th anniversary of Italy's law 180, which pretty much altered the way psychiatric services are dispensed & which was promoted by both doctors & patients, proving that the camaraderie among patient & staff that Laing longed for was possible.

A readable account of a complex man.

I first read this more than 10 years ago & found it a pleasant diversion from his more polemical writing. Laing is witty & honest: he cites but doesn't dwell on the cliches & sloganry that have fairly engulfed descriptions of his profession. Laing is incisive & wastes little time with exposition: he's on to another topic before you realize he's just alluded to rabid anti-Semitism in Great Britain during WWII! His descriptions of patients are heart-rending, especially the elderly women with whom he worked after his stint in the Army. Laing was & still is maligned by the psychiatric professional community in the U.S., but in Italy this year, it's the 20th anniversary of the "Basaglia Act," which was promoted by doctors & virtually altered the way "mental disorder" is viewed & treated. Laing made no small contribution here, & his easy style & good humor are evident in WM & F & just two reasons why he remains influential.