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Quote by R. D. Laing

“Freud was a hero. He descended to the "Underworld" and met there stark terrors. He carried with him his theory as a Medusa's head which turned these terrors to stone. We who follow Freud have the benefit of the knowledge he brought back with him and conveyed to us. He survived. We must see of we now can survive without using a theory that is in some measure an instrument of defence.”

Quote by R. D. Laing

Author

R. D. Laing was a Scottish psychiatrist known for his unconventional views on schizophrenia and his contributions to psychotherapy. His theories emphasized the role of social and cultural factors in mental illness and had a profound impact on the field of psychiatry. more

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“Conventions are convenient. It is inconvenient to say people are dead when they are alive, or alive when they have been buried, or that the world is crumbling when it is, as everyone can see, there as usual. If all A that does not fit B is ipso facto disqualified, we have to tailor A to shape and size to avoid serious trouble, and not all are equally gifted in this art.”

People Ifs World Doe Has Beens Art Alive Trouble Serious Fit Shapes Size Buried Usual Conventions Gifted Convenient Inconvenient Tailors Crumbling

Author:R. D. Laing

“They consider me to have sharp and penetrating vision because I see them through the mesh of a sieve.”

Wisdom Vision Wise Aggravation Mesh

Author:Khalil Gibran

“What is to be done? We who are still half alive, living in the often fibrillating heartland of a senescent capitalism -- can we do more than reflect the decay around and within us? Can we do more than sing our sad and bitter songs of disillusion and defeat?”

Stills Done Song Half Alive Capitalism Defeat Bitter Decay Disillusion

Book:The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise

Source: The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise

“They are playing a game. They are playing at not playing a game. If I show them I see they are, I shall break the rules and they will punish me. I must play their game, of not seeing I see the game.”

Ifs Play Shows Games Break Seeing

Book:Selected Works of RD Laing: Knots

Source: Selected Works of RD Laing: Knots

“The fountain has not played itself out, the Flame still shines, the River still flows, the Spring still bubbles forth, the Light has not faded. But between us and It, there is a veil which is more like fifty feet of solid concrete. Deus absconditus. Or we have absconded.”

Stills Light Feet Spring Flow Rivers Shining Flames Fifty Bubbles Concrete Fountain Veils Faded

Author:R. D. Laing

“In our society many of the old rituals have lost much of their power. New ones have not arisen.”

Lost Our Society Ritual

Author:R. D. Laing

“No one has schizophrenia, like having a cold. The patient has not "got" schizophrenia. He is schizophrenic.”

Cold Patient Schizophrenia Schizophrenic

Author:R. D. Laing

“We must remember that we are living in an age in which the ground is shifting and the foundations are shaking. I cannot answer for other times and places. Perhaps it has always been so. We know it is true today.”

Knows Age Today Remember Answers Foundation Shifting Shaking

Author:R. D. Laing

“Where can you scream? It's a serious question: where can you go in society and scream?”

Author:R. D. Laing

“Marcus Aurelius appoints personal character and conscience the ultimate refuge of happiness-seekers: the only place where dreams of happiness, doomed to die childless and intestate anywhere else, are not bound to be frustrated.”

Character Dream Dies Conscience Ultimate Bounds Frustrated Refuge Doomed Seekers Personal Character

Book:The Art of Life

Source: The Art of Life