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Revised Phd Thesis RD Laing Descandalizing Laing: R.D. Laing as a Social Theorist Samantha Bark A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Nottingham Trent University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2009 2 Copyright Statement This work is the intellectual property of the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed in the owner(s) of the Intellectual Property Rights. 3 List of Contents COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ................................................................................. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................... 4 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... 5 1) INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 7 2) A SUMMARY OF LAING’S MAIN CONTRIBUTIONS ....................... 17 3) CONSERVATIVE CRITIQUES BY PSYCHIATRISTS ........................ 25 REZNEK ’S CRITIQUE OF LAING ...................................................................... 25 CLARE ’S CRITIQUE OF LAING ........................................................................ 40 CRITICISM OF LAING BY THE PSYCHIATRIC ESTABLISHMENT IN INTERVIEWS .. 60 4) DELEUZE AND GUATTARI’S LAINGIAN VOYAGE......................... 66 DELEUZE AND GUATTARI ’S COMMENTARY ON AND PRAISE OF LAING ’S WORK .................................................................................................................... 66 DELEUZE AND GUATTARI ’S DIRECT CRITICISMS OF LAING ............................. 79 SOME ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ..................................................................... 91 5) FEMINIST CRITIQUES OF LAING I ...................................................100 MITCHELL ’S CRITIQUE OF LAING .................................................................100 Criticism of The Divided Self and Self and Others ...................................100 Criticism of Laing’s ‘Science of Persons’................................................105 Laing’s Deployment of Sartrean Concepts...............................................119 Criticism of Laing’s Case Studies............................................................126 ‘Feminist’ Criticism of Laing ..................................................................135 Responses to Other Critics, and Praise of Laing......................................161 6) FEMINIST CRITIQUES OF LAING II..................................................168 SHOWALTER ’S CRITIQUE OF LAING ..............................................................168 7) ARGUMENTS FOR A FEMINIST READING OF LAING ..................184 EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE OF LEVELS OF MENTAL ILLNESS .................................186 ARGUMENTS FOR A FEMINIST READING OF LAING .........................................200 LAING ’S REINTERPRETATION OF PAST CLINICAL DESCRIPTIONS ....................225 ADDITIONAL COMMENTS .............................................................................233 8) LEFT-WING CRITIQUES OF LAING ..................................................239 JACOBY ’S CRITIQUE OF LAING .....................................................................239 SEDGWICK ’S CRITIQUE OF LAING .................................................................266 9) FURTHER SOURCES OF CRITIQUE ..................................................291 MAPPING.....................................................................................................291 LAING ’S DISCUSSIONS OF BIRTH ..................................................................299 10) CONCLUSION – PRINCIPLES OF CRITIQUE .................................312 BIBLIOGRAPHY.........................................................................................319 4 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors Dr Conrad Lodziak and Dr Matt Connell for their help and support with this project. I am very grateful to Inger Hatloy (Mind Information Officer) for providing some of the information which is used in Chapter Seven of this thesis. I would also like to thank my partner for his support. 5 Abstract The scandal surrounding R.D. Laing’s work concerns both his life and his theories. Given that there is sufficient biographical material on Laing already in existence, this thesis focuses upon his theoretical contributions. No substantial review and critique of the criticism of Laing is currently in existence. The main objectives of this thesis are to evaluate the critiques of Laing, and to examine these in the light of his contributions to social theory. The critiques of Laing fall into three main categories: conservative critiques by psychiatrists, feminist critiques, and left-wing criticism. The methodological problems involved in the production of a critique are highlighted within each category of criticism. Some of the critiques of Laing constitute little other than criticism of the critic’s own misreading and misinterpretation of his work, which omit the lack of textual evidence to support the critic’s claims. The lines of development of key concepts within Laing’s work, and his intentions for his projects, may be ignored. Laing’s feminist critics view his work as prejudiced against women. This thesis examines the lack of validity within this assertion, and provides an original reading of Laing’s work as of benefit to women, through Laing’s central concern of making ‘madness’ intelligible. The importance of certain of Laing’s ignored texts, such as Reason and Violence , (1964) is highlighted through their centrality to his theoretical contributions. This thesis aims to debunk some of the myths surrounding Laing’s work, such as that it glorifies psychosis. Sedgwick, in particular, has been responsible for the promotion of some of these myths. The 6 poverty of his critique is replicated by other critics, as is a similar poor approach to the production of criticism. Critiques of elements of Laing’s work which lie outside of the standardised criticism are provided, in which the attempt to avoid reproducing the same errors as the other critiques is made. The principles required for a coherent critique of an author’s work are elucidated. 7 1) Introduction The key objective of this thesis is to examine and analyse the validity of the main theoretical critiques of Laing’s work. The criticism of Laing falls into three broad categories: conservative critiques by psychiatrists, feminist critiques, and left- wing critiques. A key part of assessing the validity of the critiques of Laing involves looking at the assumptions that the critic may be operating upon. These assumptions and values held by the critic may or may not limit the extent of their actual engagement with Laing’s work. A further important consideration here is the matter of how Laing’s work should be read and interpreted. Some of the criticism of Laing is unfortunately the product of a poor reading and interpretation of his work, which weakens the criticism severely. Examples of this will be explored by exposing the critic’s misreading, misunderstandings, or misconceptions regarding Laing’s texts. I will be using examples from Laing’s work itself as a response to his critics, if appropriate. The lines of development of concepts within Laing’s work may also be ignored, or misrepresented by the critic. Some critics omit aspects of Laing’s work that do not fit into their representation of his texts. At this point, I feel that it is worth making clear that I am not denying that there are problems with Laing’s work. Since I am aware of this, I am including a section on my own criticism of Laing, which will follow my review of the existing ones. However, many of the critiques of Laing fail in their aims, due to the above issues. Why look at the criticism of Laing? I feel that 8 it is important to assess which criticisms are valid, and which are not. Kotowicz 1 does deal with some of the criticism of Laing, as well as making his own criticisms. However, his review of the critiques could be more comprehensive. He deals implicitly with the psychiatric establishment’s problems with Laing’s work, rather than giving its exponents a good examination. I think there is a need for a thorough review of the criticism of Laing, in order to determine which of the critiques have some weight, and which do not. My aim is then to productively engage with the critiques, in order to advance Laing’s contribution to social theory. This forms the other main objective of this thesis – to examine Laing’s work as social theory. Any attempts to criticise Laing’s theory via his biography will be treated with suspicion. It is a well-known fact that Laing was an alcoholic, and that his personal life was fairly chaotic. Laing ‘is typically referred to because of personal excesses rather than his scholarship.’ 2 However, Laing’s theories cannot be simplistically written off because of his life story. His theory is of a sufficient quality, in my view, that it has to be met on its own terms, and any valid critique must do this. As Burston puts it: ‘a theory has to stand or fall on its own merits – not whether the author was drunk or so forth.’ 3 To critique Laing’s theory via his biography is a very low form of criticism. Doing
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