Wisdom, Madness and Folly: Review

I’ve just finished reading Wisdom, Madness and FollyWisdom Madness and Folly (Canongate Scottish Classics) by R. D. Laing.

It’s part memoir, part explanation of and insight into his views on psychiatry (the subtitle is “The Making of a Psychiatrist”)

I found it an interesting and enjoyable read, which meant I was able to whizz through it in a few days.  (I know you don’t always want to speed through books but I’ve a big pile waiting for me just now, so this time I do.)

Overview

Memoir covering the early years of the author’s life, from 1927-57.  The chapters cover his early years (family and school), at university, in the army, the mental hospital, and in the Department of Psychiatry.  The episodes and incidents that he shares are detailed and vivid, with each one helping to paint a picture of the institution he’s in (whether that’s family, school, army, ward) and his reactions to it both as a man and as an emerging psychiatrist.

What I Liked About It

I very much enjoyed Laing’s dry, matter-of fact writing style.  He writes about many incidents in his personal and professional life which are shocking, terrible even, but he does so in a no-nonsense way, describing what happens and his reactions to the events without undue sentiment or emotion.

It makes for a cleaner crisper read, and also gives more opportunity for the reader to ‘see’ the incidents described, and to imagine their own reactions to them.

He demonstrates a great deal of empathy for his patients and the people he encounters in the various institutions where he works.  This gives you a sense of connection to and appreciation of the author, as well as shifting and challenging some preconceived views about the nature of mental illness.

He has particular skill in balancing overview with detailed description.  Here is a moving, almost poetic description of life in the female ward of a mental hospital:

A refractory ward in a mental hospital is a strange place to be reminded of Homer.  But these women in the refractory ward brought me back to Homer’s description of the ghosts in Hades, separated on their side from teh living by the width of the Ocean, and, on the part of the living by the Rivers of Fear.  Ulysses goes to the land of the dead to meet his mother.  Although he can se her, he is dismayed to find he cannot embrace her.  She explains to him that she has no sinews, no bones, no body keeping the bones and flesh together.  Once the life force has gone from her white bones, all is consumed by the fierce heat of a blazing fear, and the soul slips away like a dream and flutters in the air.

From what experience of life had that description come?  It seemed to be so far and yet so near.

How can we entice these ghosts to life, across their oceanic abyss, across our rivers of fear?

He moves straight on from this section to a detailed description of a particular patient, almost a case history, bringing the story back down to earth, to the dirty, messy specifics of life.

A Scottish Memoir

I found the book particularly interesting because it was (primarily) set in Scotland.  It helps to bring some of the details to life when you know the places he’s talking about.  (Like the terrifiying detail that he used to ride a motorbike down Loch Lomond side without a helmet, at 70 mph, after several rounds of Guinness and whisky.)

The early sections in particular on family life and his time at school provide a valuable insight into the culture and values of lower middle class families in Scotland in the 1930s and 1940s.  The importance of being ‘good’.  The rigidity of the school system.

Strange details like the horrified reaction of his parents when he wrote an essay about time hanging heavily on his hands.  They ‘encouraged’ him to rewrite it with full descriptions of the active life he led, playing rugby, learning a musical instrument, enjoying tennis and golf – and, of course, learning to hide the feelings of disquiet he felt but could not find the words for.

It helped me to better understand some of the attitudes and values of my parents’ generation.  It also illuminates some of the more joyless aspects of Scottish culture, society and life.

What Could Have Been Better

I’d hesitate to say the book could be better – it works as it is, and serves the author’s purpose.  If you’re reading it for the memoir rather than the views on psychiatry I’d say be willing to skip the bits that you feel are going over your head.  I’d include in that the first chapter on ‘Psychiatry Today’ which I skipped in order to jump straight into the personal lifestory narrative.

Who Might Enjoy It

Clearly this memoir is going to be of particular interest if you’re curious about psychiatry, mental health and illness.  But the material is written in such an interesting, accessible and human way I’d say it would be of interest to anyone who was interested in some of the more challenging questions about the human condition.

Tagged as: Psychiatry, R. D. Laing, Wisdom Madness and Folly