R.D. Laing from the BBC documentary "The Trap"

I think the implications here are profound. I realize that Adam Curtis is actually using this as a contribution towards the negative. That may or may not be true; personally I don't believe so. But I do think that what RD Laing uncovered with this research is profound. And, I think it gives credibility to the notion that we should be living communally and not in small families.

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[02Blackbeard]

The vast majority of people in "authority" are nothing but self-serving shills.

[nakedmambo]

@MrZiai That's not what he does in this series. He looks at Lang to show the gradual change of how social interaction is perceived. Lang appeared to reach the same conclusion that people are basically cunning and manipulative and pursue self-interest. The anti-psychiatry movement could be extrapolated to any authority; for the libertarian economists to so-called "big government".

Lang was also very influential and his views must have filtered into other areas of thought, even economics.

[MrZiai]

Linking R.D. Laing with the political right is just pure stupidity.

[shanyin1234]

8:40 Alan watts?

[theRebels3]

@billesq1 I don't think he's trying to suggest Laing was motivated by the goal of free-market economics.

[billesq1]

an unbelievable assertion that R D Laing's work is somehow tied to the neo-right Friedman/chicago school of economics is made in this film. Laing was trying to change the cage in which people lived in order to enrich it. Friedman and co. were trying to change the cage to empower profiteers - big difference!! The narration of this documentary is scandalous!!

[CocteauDalighari]

@1815brian The problem w/ the whole genet. mutation/neurol. damage notion is that no one is actually diagnosed on those bases: psychotics, schizophrenics, neurotics are diagnosed based on behavior or conduct. Experiments done in the hunt for the genet. mutation are done long after the subjects are diagnosed; long after they've been patients. Given that there is a genet. mutation or many, it remains a post-diagnostic discovery.

[1815brian]

@CocteauDalighari 'Ordinary' people's character is formed by a complex inter-mixture of genes & experience or nature & nurture. We have control & freedom of the will to varying degrees and responsibility for our own actions. Psychotics I believe have a genetic mutation or neurological damage - yes, their tyrant if you like - and so sufferers have diminished control and responsibility. I don't think by saying this I've erased all freedom from the world. & psychosis is not the only psyc illness.

[CocteauDalighari]

@1815brian To insist that there is psychotic illness AND that it is neurol./genet. in origin is THE supreme definition of 1) totalitarianism & 2) personal irresponsibility. I'm gonna guess it wasn't your intent to erase freedom from the world, but that's exactly what you've done. Nice of you to replace the monomaniacal emperor w/ an unnamed tyrant: "There, that's MUCH better."

[MurpCamEy]

What documentary is this from? I think this is a wonderful clip and that many others would do well to open up to the writings of Laing. This documentary clearly goes sour at 7:30.