An outspoken critic of the medical practices of his own contemporary, R.D. Laing led the way in rethinking the care of the mentally ill. Laing wrote his most famous work The Divided Self in 1960 at the age of 28. Described as a “counterculture’s favourite psychiatrist,” Laing co-founded the Philadelphia Association, which advocated treatment of mental health patients without the use of the anti-psychotic drugs so prominent at the time. Via psychiatry, Laing offered up a potent critique of medical orthodoxy at the time, and though his voice has been somewhat lost over the decades, he, with others, offered critiques of healthcare that should still resonate, still precipitate discussion and argument now. Here is an excerpt of Laing in 1982 in discussion with Gregory Jackson on the television program Signature.
