1995 Articles

R.D. Laing and Me

Russell, Roberta

Guided by the research-supported belief that empathy and the feeling of alliance between a client and therapist are the active force in therapeutic change, and motivated by my desire to help R.D. Laing increase his income, in 1981, I suggested to Laing that he write a book telling his readers how to have a therapeutic relationship with a carefully selected person outside the confines of therapy. Like the heroine in the movie, Pretty Woman, he saved me right back, by counter-proposing that I join him in London to write such a book. By doing so, we could try to create a successful "how-to" book and to increase our personal options as one does in a successful therapy. That is the way R.D. Laing & Me: Lessons in Love-which is actually a true love story-began.