October 25-27, 2013

A Weekend Symposium Addressing R.D. Laing's legacy and contemporary relevance in commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of his death.

Wagner College, Staten Island, NY

www.rdlaing2013symposium.com/

SPEAKERS
Fritjof Capra, Ph.D., Keynote Speaker
Betty Cannon, Ph.D.
Darlene Ehrenberg, Ph.D.
Brian Evans, Ph.D.
Andrew Feldmar, Ph.D.
Steven Gans, Ph.D.
Miles Groth, Ph.D.
Theodor Itten
Douglas Kirsner, Ph.D.
Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.
Alma Menn
Peter Mezan, Ph.D.
Maureen O'Hara
Chris Oakley
Andrew Pickering, Ph.D.
Leon Redler, M.D.
Kirk Schneider, Ph.D.
Martin A. Schulman, Ph.D.
Mina Semyon
Ross Speck, M.D.
Michael Guy Thompson, Ph.D.

Friday, 24. August 2012, I like to inform you all, that on October 2012, a new book about the impact of Ronnie Laing’s life and work will be published.

R.D. LAING : 50 years since ‘THE DIVIDED SELF’
Edited by Theodor Itten & Courtenay Young
PCCS Books (2012)
Ross-on-Wye

Together with Courtenay Young, Editor of The International Journal of Psychotherapy, I have collected and edited this book. There are twenty four authors who joined in, and we begin our Introduction as follows:

With this book, our authors and we, the editors, commemorate and celebrate in our various ways, the 50 years (or so) since the publication of R.D. Laing’s: The Divided Self, in 1960. He was then 33 years old. He began writing his first book shortly after he entered clinical practice in the Royal Gartnavel Hospital, Glasgow, in 1953, developing his style of relating to patients, listening to them, and conveying his experience by getting his ‘voice’ going. For Laing, the epistemological basis for the science of a person became empirical phenomenology: the ultimate definition was not some erudite theory, but what could actually be seen and heard. In this, he was quite radical and – for him – this was also somewhat transformational.

What was Laing’s basic message just over half a century ago? First of all, it is imperative to listen more carefully to the ‘mad’ communications of all the people that are similar to those who are portrayed in ‘The Divided Self’. Maybe they are not as ‘mad’ as they seem; maybe they are just ‘divided selves’. Whilst simple, this was revolutionary. For centuries, society (we) had excluded, ignored, imprisoned, laughed at, and been afraid of these ‘mad’ people. De facto, their ravings could not therefore be sensible, but Laing just asked us to listen more carefully and take some of their personal ‘stories’ into account: maybe then they would make more sense than heretofore presumed. If you start to ‘be’ with these ordinary people, much like you and me, in a more courteous respectful way, you may find that they might open up to you some of the treasures of their hidden true selves.

See an overview (incl. Contents)
download pdf

published 20.10.2012
For more Information: please visit http://www.pccs-books.co.uk/.

Special Issue: R.D. Laing - International Journal of Psychotherapy, Volume 15, No. 2, July 2011
http://www.ijp.org.uk/home

Editorial: Theodor Itten

"Variations On My Theme": An interview with R.D. Laing: Hanspeter Gschwend
The Liberating Shaman of Kingsley Hall: Francis Huxley
More than fifty years after: Laing, Satre & the Other: Ljiljana Filipovic
R.D. Laing and long-stay patients: Discrepant accounts of the refactory ward and "rumpus room" at Gartnaval Royal Hospital: David Abrahamson
Soteria - A different approach to mental health: Voyce Hendrix
From "The Divided Self" to "The Voice of Experience": Theodor Itten
The impact of the ideas of R.D. Laing on UK psychology students from the 1960s to the 21st century: Brian Evans
Personal Recollections of R. D. Laing: Emmy van Deurzen
Sanity, madness & memory: R. D. Laing and the post-modern: Ron Roberts
Tales from the boiling pot: Psychotherapy Training and Initiation: Bruce Scott
Re-turning, Re-membering and Re-viewing: Ronnie Laing and "Me": Leon Redler
Demystifying Madness: R.D. Laing and "Hatred of the Unlived Life": Brent Potter
R.D. Laing (1927-1989): A Biography: Compiled by Theodor Itten
Ronald David Laing: Quotations: Collated by C. Young