Citation

Chapman A. J. Med. Humanit. 2018; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Medical Humanities Research Centre, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, Scotland, UK. adrian.chapman@glasgow.ac.uk.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Springer)

DOI

10.1007/s10912-018-9517-1

PMID

29860647

Abstract

Contributing to renewed scholarly interest in R. D. Laing and his circle, and in the radical therapeutic community of Kingsley Hall, London (1965-1970), this article offers the first article-length reading of Mary Barnes' and Joseph Berke's Mary Barnes: Two Accounts of a Journey through Madness. This text offers views of anti-psychiatry 'on the ground' that critique the 1960s utopianism of Laing's championing of madness as a metanoic, quasi-psychedelic voyage. Barnes' story, too, reveals tensions within the anti-psychiatric movement. Moving beyond existing criticism of the text, Barnes, it is argued here, emerges as far more than an exemplary patient, victim or anti-psychiatric puppet. Particular attention is paid in this reading of Two Accounts to the following: the ways in which the spiritually inclined Barnes and the psychoanalytic Berke differ in this dual narrative text; the ways in which each differs from Laing; the metaphor of the journey; and the setting of Barnes' story in the often conflicted, experimental household of Kingsley Hall.

Language: en

Keywords

Anti-psychiatry; Kingsley Hall; Mary Barnes; Metanoia; R. D. Laing; Spirituality