R. D. Laing, Reason and Violence

Daniel Burston (Duquesne University); Gavin Miller (University of Glasgow)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University), Sean Seeger (University of Essex)

Domains

Psychoanalysis

Dates

First circulation or publication 1964

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Treatise

Resources

R.D. Laing acknowledged deep intellectual debts to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, Husserl and Heidegger, Buber and Tillich. But no existential philosopher affected him more profoundly than Jean-Paul Sartre, whose book Being and Nothingness he read in the Army in 1949 (Kirsner 2003). Beginning in the late 1950s, Laing wrote Sartre several letters, to which Sartre did not respond. However, on Simone de Beauvoir's recommendation, Sartre finally read The Divided Self in 1962, then welcomed his further correspondence. With the help of Marcelle Vincent, Laing arranged to meet with Sartre for one six-hour session in early November of 1963. Among other topics, Laing and Sartre discussed normality, fantasy, old age, mescaline and alienation. During this lengthy interview, Sartre agreed to write the foreword to Reason and Violence, which he characterises as “a very clear, very faithful account...

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1026 words

Citation: Burston, Daniel, Gavin Miller. "Reason and Violence". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 August 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16850, accessed 05 December 2025.]