R. D. Laing, The Politics of the Family

Daniel Burston (Duquesne University); Gavin Miller (University of Glasgow)
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In 1968, Phyllis Webb of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation approached R.D. Laing to deliver the Massey Lecture Series for the CBC's radio series IDEAS. These five talks were aired in Toronto and around the country in 1969, and published as

The Politics of the Family

. These talks were then edited, expanded and subsequently re-published, along with “Intervention in Social Situations” and several other essays, by Pantheon, Laing's American Publisher, in 1971, under the same title (Laing, 1971). As in

Sanity, Madness and the Family

, Laing is trying to demonstrate the social intelligibility of the signs and symptoms of schizophrenia. And as regards the rest of us, i.e. the putatively sane, Laing is trying to elucidate the ways in which group pressures and processes promote…

639 words

Citation: Burston, Daniel, Gavin Miller. "The Politics of the Family". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 August 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16852, accessed 29 March 2024.]

16852 The Politics of the Family 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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