Asylum 1972 Clips

Available on DVD from http://www.oegdvd.com

One of the most incredible fly-on-the-wall documentaries ever made in which a film crew lives with the schizophrenic residents of a group home based upon radical psychiatrist R. D. Laing's controversial approach to healing through compassion and freedom. "Asylum, I think, is to say, a safe place to be when you're frightened and alone." It is in such disarmingly basic terms that the British psychiatrist, R. D. Laing, defines his therapeutic community in London. In the 1960’s and 70’s R.D. Laing’s books regularly topped the student best-seller lists in the US, he shared the same stage as bands like the Grateful Dead and was never far away from controversy, being labelled 'The Acid Marxist'. The psychiatric establishment regularly tried to close his community at Kingsley Hall, seeing his occasional therapeutic use of LSD and his belief in metanoia (self-healing) as irresponsible and unscientific.

Starring

R.D. Laing
Leon Redler
David Bell

Director

Peter Robinson