Laing, Ronald David

Life and Career

Ronald David Laing was born on October 7, 1927, on 26 Ardbeg Street in the Govanhill district of Glasgow and died on August 23, 1989, in St. Tropez, France. Like his father, Ronald Laing was musically gifted and received a Licentiate in music from the Royal Academy of Music at age 16. At 17, he enrolled in Glasgow University, and at 18, specialized in medicine. Because of the Korean War, military service was mandatory, and so in 1949, Laing did basic training. After a brief apprenticeship in neurosurgery at Killearn in 1950, Laing spent 1951–1952 as an army psychiatrist. In 1953, now a captain, Laing was placed in charge of the Army hospital in Catterick, in Yorkshire. Soon thereafter, he left the Army for the Royal Gartnavel Hospital and Southern General Hospital (Glasgow), where he worked under Dr. Ferguson Rodger. Rodger brought Laing to the attention of Dr. J. D. Sutherland, the Director of the Tavistock Clinic. With the help of Sutherland, and his successor, John...