Ten years on: the abiding presence of R.D. Laing

The life and work of Ronald David Laing forms the basis for a review of anti-psychiatry from the late 1960s until about the mid 1970s. That the period concerned was not the jamboree of sex, drugs and anarchy by which it is normally portrayed is evidenced by Laing's ambivalence towards anti-psychiatry as well as his yearning for academic and medical respectability. Recent biographies of Laing as well as interviews given shortly before his death were scanned in preparation for this paper. However, some new perspectives are supplied. For example, the curious neglect (by scholars) of the conservative psychiatric forces which paralleled the Laingian critique is briefly examined and especially the attitudes of such forces towards Laingian psychiatry. In addition, some connections are made between Laing's upbringing and his work. Such speculations, always risky, seem valid albeit Laing would probably smile. Lastly, whilst a comparable history of seditious thought in nursing remains unwritten, because hidden, such a history will ultimately depend on psychiatric nursing and especially the career of Annie Altschul who, even earlier than Laing, had sought to define psychiatric care as an interactive and humanizing event.