ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the figure of the psychiatrist in general and R. D. Laing in particular in order to re-evaluate his profound contribution to the politics of psychiatric care. It explores three primary sites of madness – the asylum, the hospital, the community – in order to engage with the felt experiences of environments of care. The book provides the history of psychiatric treatments and their contemporary manifestations as a way to understand the thinking that undergirded such practices, but also their lived experience by patients. It considers experiences of unusual perceptual phenomena and considers how reality is made, fathomed, and managed. The book also explores women's experiences of their own pathologised bodies, particularly with respect to issues of class, race, and addiction. It concludes with experiences of profound feeling-states and considers how moods think and communicate.
