Wing Of Madness: The Life And Work Of R.D. Laing; Author: Burston, Daniel; Hardback; Book

Author: Burston, Daniel
Hardback; Book
288 pages
Published: July 1996
Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674953584

In his final years, R. D. Laing (1927-1989) was arriving at lectures addled with hashish and brandy. Reflecting on this sad spectacle, one is apt to forget that Laing was one of the most influential and controversial psychiatrists of the twentieth century, whose books sold millions of copies in more than twenty languages. Even at the height of his power, however. Ronald Laing was a mystery, a man of many contradictions, and it is this mystery that The Wing of Madness explores, searching out both the remarkable story of Laing's life and the lasting significance of his work.This work chronicles the troubled, but successful, life of Ronald Laing, an influential figure in 20th-century psychiatry. It describes his rise to fame as a media psychoguru, and his decline in the 1970s and 1980s when he was said to be arriving at lectures drunk and on drugs.