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. R. D. Laing _______ Ronald David Laing His most original contribution, the source of his inspiration, what he wrote about and where he wrote from, was the time that he spent listening to mad people. Before Ronnie, few psychiatrists, if any, spoke with such a good ear for madness. There were others including Freud, Jung, Fromm-Reichman and Rosen, who attempted in some way to decode mad-speak, but Ronnie hung out with mad people. He was first of all a guy who, with people who were seen as mad, entered into a kind of a friendship; he created space that hadnt before opened up, between himself and the mad. Also he was very plastic and mimetic, so he could imitate and get into other peoples moods, thoughts, language, and world, including those of so-called mad people. And he was able to bring back and speak of what it was like to be mad (more or less). This gave mad people an enormous sense of relief. Someone heard them. They were not alone. Madness was not unreason, a total unintelligibility, a total difference between the sane and the insane. Ronnie showed that were all in it together. There was not an unbridgeable gulf between sanity and madness: rather there is a continuum. Mad people felt that this guy really understands what Im going through. This proved extremely helpful for people who thought they were going mad, or who were told they were mad. Steven Gans, in Remembering Ronnie in Janus Head (Spring 2001)
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 14:30:46 +0000
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