Laing’s The Divided Self and The Politics of Experience : then and now

The Divided Self and The Politics of Experience are two very different books. The first is a careful, clinical existential study of schizophrenia whereas the second is an impassioned condemnation of the way modern society has thwarted and violated human experience. Laing brought the idea of politics to experience, and as well as to relationships, the family and other interconnected social contexts. But both books, which I want to revisit, show very important similarities that illuminate central features of Laing’s existential quest.