Abstract

GABRIEL, Guiomar  and  TEIXEIRA, José A. Carvalho. Ronald D. Laing: A política da psicopatologia. Aná. Psicológica [online]. 2007, vol.25, n.4, pp.661-673. ISSN 0870-8231.

The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic overview on the work of Ronald D. Laing (1927-1989), specifically his contributions to psychopathology and his view on psychosis. Laing’s critical perspectives on traditional psychopathology, and his suggestion of a different, ontological criterion for a phenomenological-existential psychopathology, are referred. This paper presents Laing’s evolving views on psychosis and several of his concepts such as: ontological insecurity; false Self system; three types of anxiety present in the ontological insecure individuals; “good-bad-mad” developments; mystification; psychosis as a way of coping with an unbearable situation; psychosis as a transcendental experience and a journey to the inner world; intelligibility of symptoms. Finally, a critical perspective on laingian concepts and a personal discussion on Laing’s actuality and pertinence are presented.

Keywords : Laing; psychopathology; phenomenology; existentialism; psychosis.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )