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In-Depth Information
Figure 5.2.
r. d. laing. used courtesy of university of glasgow library.
died playing tennis in the south of France in 1989 (fig. 5.2).
20
He studied medi-
cine at Glasgow University from 1945 to 1951, when, after six months of
neurosurgical internship, he was called up by the army and “summarily in-
formed” that he was now a psychiatrist. He left the army in 1953 and found a
position at Glasgow Royal Mental Hospital. In 1957 he headed south, joining
the Tavistock Institute in London in 1957 and remaining there until 1967
(Howarth-Williams 1977, 4-5).
21
During the 1960s he published seven topics
and many articles while developing and implementing an increasingly radical
psychiatric stance, becoming a key figure in what is often referred to as the
“antipsychiatry movement.”
22
He also became a central figure in the British
“underground” scene, and the publication in 1967 of his popular topic
The
Politics of Experience
brought him national and international attention and
even notoriety.
