R. D. Laing Quotes

A collection of quotes by R. D. Laing.

R. D. Laing, born in 1927, was a renowned Scottish psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He gained prominence in the 1960s for challenging traditional psychiatric practices and advocating for a more humane and empathetic approach to mental illness. Laing's groundbreaking book, "The Divided Self," explored the experiences of mental distress and the impact of social and cultural factors on individual psyche. Through his controversial theories and therapeutic methods, Laing aimed to foster a deeper understanding of mental illness and transform the way society perceives and treats those struggling with psychological distress. Laing passed away in 1989, leaving behind a lasting legacy in the field of psychiatry.

We are all murderers and prostitutes --no matter to what cul

We are all murderers and prostitutes --no matter to what culture, society, class, nation one belongs, no matter how normal, moral, or mature, one takes oneself to be.

The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail

The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.

The experience and behavior that gets labeled schizophrenic

The experience and behavior that gets labeled schizophrenic is a special strategy that a person invents in order to live in an unlivable situation.

We are bemused and crazed creatures, strangers to our true s

We are bemused and crazed creatures, strangers to our true selves, to one another, and to the spiritual and material world -- mad, even, from an ideal standpoint we can glimpse but not adopt.

Whether life is worth living depends on whether there is lov

Whether life is worth living depends on whether there is love in life.

Schizophrenia cannot be understood without understanding des

Schizophrenia cannot be understood without understanding despair.

From the moment of birth, when the stone-age baby confronts

From the moment of birth, when the stone-age baby confronts the twentieth-century mother, the baby is subjected to these forces of violence, called love, as its mother and father have been, and their parents and their parents before them. These forces are mainly concerned with destroying most of its potentialities. This enterprise is on the whole successful.

The brotherhood of man is evoked by particular men according

The brotherhood of man is evoked by particular men according to their circumstances. But it seldom extends to all men. In the name of our freedom and our brotherhood we are prepared to blow up the other half of mankind and to be blown up in our turn.

Alienation as our present destiny is achieved only by outrag

Alienation as our present destiny is achieved only by outrageous violence perpetrated by human beings on human beings.

Normality highly values its normal man. It educates children

Normality highly values its normal man. It educates children to lose themselves and to become absurd, and thus to be normal. Normal men have killed perhaps 100, 000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years.

In the society of men the truth resides now less in what thi

In the society of men the truth resides now less in what things are than in what they are not. Our social realities are so ugly if seen in the light of exiled truth, and beauty is no longer possible if it is not a lie.

Modern Modernism

There is no such condition as schizophrenia, but the label i

There is no such condition as schizophrenia, but the label is a social fact and the social fact a political event.

There is a great deal of pain in life and perhaps the only p

There is a great deal of pain in life and perhaps the only pain that can be avoided is the pain that comes from trying to avoid pain.

We are all murderers and prostitutes - no matter to what cul

We are all murderers and prostitutes - no matter to what culture, society, class, nation one belongs, no matter how normal, moral, or mature, one takes oneself to be.