Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise

In `The Politics of Experience' and the visionary `Bird of Paradise', R.D. Laing shows how the straitjacket of conformity imposed on us all leads to intense feelings of alienation and a tragic waste of human potential. He throws into question the notion of normality, examines schizophrenia and psychotherapy, transcendence and `us and them' thinking, and illustrates his ideas with a remarkable case history of a ten-day psychosis. `We are bemused and crazed creatures,' Laing suggests. This outline of `a thoroughly self-conscious and self-critical human account of man' represents a major attempt to understand our deepest dilemmas and sketch in solutions. n n `Everyone in contemporary psychiatry owes something to R.D. Laing' Anthony Clare, the Guardian. n