Laing's Psychiatric Schizophrenic Healing Autobiography Wisdom

By Donald Lewis


When it comes to writers familiar with psychiatry and theory, the late Ronald David Laing was one of the best. For, Laing had a lot of experience in the area even after having to repeat a series of college exams. In a partial psychiatric schizophrenic healing autobiography wisdom, madness and folly, Laing suggests that the failure was due to remarks made at a university function rather than actual test scores on a number of tests.

Laing was a Scottish psychiatrist whom wrote entirely on the topic of psychosis and schizophrenia. In fact, the psychiatrists has received a number of film and book credits whether related to personal work or, the work of others. Most often, the body of work attributed to Laing is based on the unorthodox treatments and community built for clients with which the psychiatrist worked over the course of a lifetime.

Laing's views often ran counterclockwise to the ongoing treatments of orthodox psychiatry such as chemically based medications and electroshock therapy. In one case, because the psychiatrist and author looked at the feelings of clients as real experiences rather than symptoms. Whereas, when it came to psychosis, Laing viewed schizophrenia as theory rather than the fact.

While labeled as anti-psychiatry by others in the field and a large portion of society, Laing rejected such label and moved forward with a thriving practice. For, the psychiatrist had become accustom to labels as others had been labeling the psychiatrist a New Left thinker for years.

Mad to Be Normal, a film released in 2017 focuses on the life of Laing and the field of psychiatry in the 1960s. One of the main aspects being to shine a light on the unorthodox methods of treatment being provided at the time, many which were more successful than others. While this is the case, this is just one film in a library of a number of books and films in which Laing has received such credit.

Even in early education at Sir John Neilson Cuthbertson Public School and four years at Hutcheson's Grammar School, Laing was considered precocious, competitive and clever. Unlike other children, Laing loved reading books from the public library, participated in distance running and became a musician and an associate of the Royal College of Music. Later, Laing studied medicine at the University of Glasgow.

During the course of studies towards a medical degree, Laing set up a Socratic Club with Bertand Russell as president. After which, Laing failed the first set of final exams. Then, after working in a psychiatric unit for six months, the psychiatrist retook the exams and passed, thus qualifying as a medical health care provider. After which, the psychiatrist became more involved in different areas of the field of psychiatry always pushing for more non-conventional methods of treatment.

Ultimately, while Laing continued to pursue this direction in the field of psychiatry, colleagues continued to reject the ideology presented by the psychiatrist. For, most disagreed with the overwhelming opposition Laing held toward electroshock, insulin shock therapy and medication. Still, Laing moved on providing unorthodox treatment to those whom shared in the same ideology, philosophy and theoretical beliefs and continued to reject the so-called norm when it came to ongoing and more conventional treatments.




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