The Crucible of Experience: R. D. Laing and the Crisis of Psychotherapy

Front Cover
Harvard University Press, May 19, 2000 - Biography & Autobiography - 168 pages

One of the great rebels of psychiatry, R. D. Laing challenged prevailing models of madness and the nature and limits of psychiatric authority. In this brief and lucid book, Laing’s widely praised biographer distills the essence of Laing’s vision, which was religious and philosophical as well as psychological.

The Crucible of Experience reveals Laing’s philosophical debts to existentialism and phenomenology in his theories of madness and sanity, family theory and family therapy. Daniel Burston offers the first detailed account of Laing’s practice as a therapist and of his relationships—often contentious—with his friends and sometime disciples. Burston carefully differentiates between Laing and “Laingians,” who were often clearer, more confident, and more simplistic than their teacher.

While he examines Laing’s theories of madness, Burston focuses most provocatively on Laing’s views of sanity and normality and on his recognition, toward the end of his life, of the essential place of holiness in human experience. In a powerful last chapter, Burston shows that Laing foresaw the present commercialization of medicine and asked pointed questions about what the meaning of sanity and the future of psychotherapy in such a world could be. In this, as in other matters, Laing’s questions of a generation ago remain questions for our time.

 

Contents

R D Laing and Existential Phenomenology
14
R D Laing and Existential Psychotherapy
33
Families Phenomenology and Schizophrenia
57
Normality and the Numinous
98
Laing and the Crisis of Psychotherapy
132
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The Crucible of Experience: R.D. Laing and the Crisis of Psychotherapy
Daniel Burston
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Common terms and phrases

agency alienation analysis and/or attitude authentic awareness Bateson behavior Buber Burston chapter clinical concept of normality consciousness construed contrast cultural deeply despite Dilthey Divided ence Erich Fromm estrangement existence existential fact Freud Freudian genuine Gnostic Gregory Bateson Hegel Heidegger Heidegger's Heideggerian human humanistic Husserl ideas individual inner insisted interpersonal issue Jaspers Jung Jung's Kierkegaard Kingsley Hall Kirsner Kraepelin Lacan Laing and Esterson Laing never Laing's Laing's approach Martin Buber Martin Heidegger Marx Maurice Merleau-Ponty Max Scheler mental disorder mental health Merleau-Ponty Messianic mind Mullan nature Nietzsche norms noted one's ontological security parents patient perhaps perience person phenomenology philosophy Politics of Experience psychiatrist psychoanalysis psychology psychotherapy psychotic R. D. Laing relatedness relationship religious Rycroft sanity Sartre Sartre's Scheler schizoid schizophrenia self-disclosure sense social phantasy systems spiritual theory therapeutic therapist therapy thought tion transcendental unconscious Wilhelm Dilthey Wing of Madness

About the author (2000)

Daniel Burston is Associate Professor of Psychology at Duquesne University.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Crucible of Experience: R. D. Laing and the Crisis of Psychotherapy
AuthorDaniel Burston
Editionillustrated
PublisherHarvard University Press, 2000
ISBN0674002172, 9780674002173
Length168 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Biography & Autobiography / General
Biography & Autobiography / Social Scientists & Psychologists
Psychology / General
Psychology / History
Psychology / Psychotherapy / General
  
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