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Is Schizophrenia an Illness?

R. D. Laing is a psychiatrist who challenged conventional views in the 1960s with his proposal that schizophrenia was an adaptive behavior, "a sane response to an insane world," as opposed to an illness. The counterculture embraced Laing's views, but they were controversial in academic circles. In 1965, Laing formed the Philadelphia (for brotherly love, not the city) Association, an alternative treatment center for schizophrenics. His latest books are "The Voice of Experience," and "Wisdom, Madness, and Folly." The latter is an autobiography of the first half of his life.

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