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Mad to be Normal


Angury

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Mad to be Normal is a biopic about R.D. Laing, a Scottish psychiatrist whose work had a significant impact on modern day Psychiatry and the anti-psychiatry movement.

 

One of his most controversial ideas was Kingsley Hall; a centre in East London in which people suffering from psychosis were able to come and go as they pleased with no medication or restraint. Instead, the centre contained activities such as meditation, all-night therapy and role-reversal sessions. The place was also famous for its use of LSD (which at the time was legal), which was supposed to 'release inner demons and buried childhood traumas.' At least two people jumped off the buildings roof while the centre was open, and the house was raided by a drug squad. Easy to say, it was all a rather chaotic experiment.

 

Possibly one of the most famous 'residents' was Mary Barnes, a woman who used to smear the walls with faeces, regressed to infancy for a time and fed from a bottle. She later became a famous artist and poet. There is more information about the residents there in this Guardian article:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/sep/02/rd-laing-mental-health-sanity

 

"At the time I was at Kingsley Hall, the view really was that, if you had schizophrenia, it was no good talking to you because you would never get any sense out of a schizophrenic – it's all nonsense that comes out of their mouths. And I pretty much subscribed to that view. Ronnie [Laing] said, "Go mad, young man", and I did. I took him at his word, and I went as mad as I possibly could, and at no time did he try and stop me.

This biopic, with David Tennant playing Laing, is set during this exceptional experiment and covers the life of one of the worlds most renowned and controversial psychiatrists.

 

Unfortunately no trailers have yet to be released, but a few photos have been released which show Tennant as Laing:

 

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I am a big fan of Laing, his most famous work arguably being The Divided Self and I am thrilled that his work is being brought into the public light - although he was very well known in his own time, with his books reaching the best-seller lists.

 

I was wondering whether there were any other fans out there eagerly awaiting this film - or perhaps those who've never heard of him but are interested none the less!

Edited by Angury
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And I wouldn't have thought the use of LSD would go down well either...shocking reading, and interesting (and sad) to see that the people they spoke to for that article don't, for the most part, seem to be much better. 

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Great post Angury.

During my own research in this area of anti psychiatry, I read a lot of Laing about 25 years ago.

This Kingsley Hall was an experiment that ended up

being ridiculed by mainstream biological psychiatry due to the regression, baby feeding etc.

What are your thoughts on Laings writing? While I agree that his behaviour as a doctor was at times downright unprofessional, I found his book, The Divided Self to be rather enlightening. I find psychosis very interesting and I thought it was a different way of looking at the 'illness.'

 

Also, I'd love to hear more about your research into anti-psychiatry. What conclusion did you eventually reach - do you think it is a movement that is needed?

Edited by Angury
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I feel the survivor movement in the USA and the various groups such as Soteria network in UK, are very important.

Sadly the more one looks deep into psychiatry, the more you realise pros for both traditional psychiatry and for critics of the system.

Criticism of psychiatry is at its best when talking of psychiatry's connections to the drug industry ie pharmaceutical companies.

Not very ethical at times.

Yet a consultant psychiatrist faced with a very distressed individual in a hospital. Can she offer her in depth counselling and then blame childhood trauma? Well first it's not quite attainable to get a person in that state to listen to anything.

Medication? Yes please, cry all professionals....and rightly so in such cases.

Such fascinating and complex ideas stem from one's readings in mental health.

Edited by itsmeagain
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I feel the survivor movement in the USA and the various groups such as Soteria network in UK, are very important.

Sadly the more one looks deep into psychiatry, the more you realise pros for both traditional psychiatry and for critics of the system.

Criticism of psychiatry is at its best when talking of psychiatry's connections to the drug industry ie pharmaceutical companies.

Not very ethical at times.

Yet a consultant psychiatrist faced with a very distressed individual in a hospital. Can she offer her in depth counselling and then blame childhood trauma? Well first it's not quite attainable to get a person in that state to listen to anything.

Medication? Yes please, cry all professionals....and rightly so in such cases.

Such fascinating and complex ideas stem from one's readings in mental health.

Very interesting. I agree, it's such a grey area and ultimately I don't think we can ever find one 'answer' to these problems. Mental health problems differ for each and every person, and I think a good psychiatrist is one who is able to see each of her patients as individuals filled with loves, fears and joys of their own - lives that cannot be conveyed by a diagnosis and need to be understood rather than condensed.

 

I hear a Soteria House was opened in Bradford here in the UK, but I was unable to find much information about it's current status and whether it was still running - I was hoping to volunteer with them for a while.

 

However there is an organisation called the Critical Psychiatry Network in the UK which I follow:

 

http://www.criticalpsychiatry.co.uk/

 

It is made up of a group of British psychiatrists who are critical of certain uses of the current diagnostic system and the use of psychopharmacology in certain settings. They have released some very interesting papers and hold regular events throughout the UK.

 

While I don't necessarily agree with everything that the network says, I do think it is important to have this discussion. I think mental health problems change with time and culture, and it is up to each society to decide what we consider a problem, how we choose to treat it and how we choose to perceive those who suffer from such difficulties.

 

I am hoping that this upcoming film helps to highlight this issue and hopefully stimulates a discussion on what we can learn from psychiatry in the past (I do think there are lessons we can learn) and what we should aim for in the future.

Edited by Angury
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Yes Angury good points.Apparently Soteria do exist in Bradford but where I do not know.

I lived and worked many years there and not once did I ever hear of Soteria .

Interestingly, you say mh problems change over time and culture.

Yes. Did you know homosexuality was a mental disorder until about 1980 in UK?

It...the diagnostic process...is about societal shifts in perception of acceptable as much as it is objective fact.

Edited by itsmeagain
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And I wouldn't have thought the use of LSD would go down well either...shocking reading, and interesting (and sad) to see that the people they spoke to for that article don't, for the most part, seem to be much better.

 

Absolutely.LSD intoxication causes symptoms so soon to schizophrenia and Laing really let himself down here. Edited by itsmeagain
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Hi Angury, you obviously have a deep interest in this whole subject and have read impressively...I hope you are not disappointed by the TV dramatisation of this interesting person. It is bound to be a bit of a snapshot and have a bit of an angle on his personality to suit the plot. 

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Hi Angury, you obviously have a deep interest in this whole subject and have read impressively...I hope you are not disappointed by the TV dramatisation of this interesting person. It is bound to be a bit of a snapshot and have a bit of an angle on his personality to suit the plot.

That is a good point (and I'm humbled that you recognise how passionate I am about this subject).

 

I agree that the movie is unlikely to be completely factually accurate and some creative license will be used, but I do hope that they manage to keep to the spirit of Laings legacy. At the least, I hope that this film brings Laing back into the spotlight and opens up a debate about how we treat the mentally unwell and the direction we are heading in. Laing is well-known for his eccentric and at times dangerous behaviour, but I just hope that this film will portray a different side - a man who saw mental illness as more than just a set of chemical imbalances, who went against the status quo of his profession and saw his patients through a holistic lens and (I believe) set the ball rolling for community mental health care.

 

But yes, you are right. It will to some extent be a dramatisation of his life (and there is a lot to dramatise), but if it really does go all topsy turvy at least I can sit back in the cinema and dream about Tennant instead. :D

Edited by Angury
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  • 2 weeks later...

But yes, you are right. It will to some extent be a dramatisation of his life (and there is a lot to dramatise), but if it really does go all topsy turvy at least I can sit back in the cinema and dream about Tennant instead. :D

 

Ah yes there is that. Even I enjoy seeing Tennant on screen. I felt he brought a bit of manic edginess to Dr Who.  

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Mad to be Normal is to be released on 24th March..

 

..I will be in India until the 22nd April. :(

 

Wow! Have a great time in India! That's going to be better than a film, which you can catch up with any time.

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Wow! Have a great time in India! That's going to be better than a film, which you can catch up with any time.

You're absolutely right, it will be an incredible experience. It's just the travelling I dread!

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Indeed. Hot air balloon or pedallo?

 

If only.

 

Nine hour flight followed by an eight hour taxi ride. I don't mind the taxi ride as much as I get to stare out the window and observe a whole different culture. I just hate, and have always hated, long-haul flights. Oh well, it'll be over 'soon' ..

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  • 2 months later...

Has anyone seen this film yet/planning to see it?

 

I went to see it yesterday, and was surprised to see the theatre was packed.

 

I did enjoy the film. I was expecting it to be dramatised to a certain extent, but I felt it kept up with the craziness of Laing's experiment with a touch of humour, without going completely overboard. I'm also glad it showed just how radical Laing's way of thinking was at the time, and indeed how dangerous it could be.

 

The only thing I didn't like, and I really, really didn't like it was 

 

the portrayal of ECT in the film. It always bothers me to see these sort of shocking, horror movie-esque depictions of ECT as if they are extremely painful (they are not) and dangerous (rarely). I feel that a film released in 2017 would have had more of an appreciation of how to depict this sort of thing, given how badly it has been shown in the past in films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.



 

Oh and finally, David Tennant was fantastic as Laing. If anything, go see the movie for him.

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