Ken Hanley
Funny. Erich Fromm just came up on another list. Did he think this or are you thinking R.D.Laing? A very different kettle of fish, theoretically, though, left, in a kinda idiosyncratic (hey 'bout idiotsyncratic ) way, just like Fromm.
A lefty novelist, Clancy Sigal, wrote a satire of Laing, circa mid-70's, got sued for libel in UK by Laing's lawyers. Sigal's novel was withdrawn from publication inthe UK. I'd assume that the bio by a Daniel Burston, published by Harvard Univ. Press, a few yrs. ago on Laing, would go into this. His early works, like Sanity, Madness and the Family, are still worth reading, but methinks, fame tweaked Ronald a bit.
And people wanting a good read on the Old Left, in a novel, read, Sigal's, "Going Away." He has another, I haven't read where E.P. Thompson and his wife, Dorothy figure as fictionalised characters.
Michael Pugliese