R. D. Laing and theology: the influence of Christian existentialism on The Divided Self

The radical psychiatrist R. D. Laing's first book, The Divided Self (1960), is informed by the work of Christian thinkers on scriptural interpretation — an intellectual genealogy apparent in Laing's comparison of Karl Jaspers's symptomatology with the theological tradition of `form cr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHistory of the human sciences Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 1 - 21
Main Author Miller, Gavin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.04.2009
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Bultmann, Rudolf
Existentialism
Genealogy
Laing, R D (1927-1989)
Lake, Frank
Myths
Psychiatry
Schizophrenia
Theology
Rudolf Bultmann
demythologization
schizophrenia
R. D. Laing
Frank Lake
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Summary:The radical psychiatrist R. D. Laing's first book, The Divided Self (1960), is informed by the work of Christian thinkers on scriptural interpretation — an intellectual genealogy apparent in Laing's comparison of Karl Jaspers's symptomatology with the theological tradition of `form criticism'. Rudolf Bultmann's theology, which was being enthusiastically promoted in 1950s Scotland, is particularly influential upon Laing. It furnishes him with the notion that schizophrenic speech expresses existential truths as if they were statements about the physical and organic world. It also provides him with a model of the schizoid position as a form of modern-day Stoicism. Such theological recontextualization of The Divided Self illuminates continuities in Laing's own work, and also indicates his relationship to a wider British context, such as the work of the `clinical theologian' Frank Lake.
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ISSN:0952-6951
1461-720X
DOI:10.1177/0952695108101284