R. D. Laing was perhaps the most famous psychiatrist in the latter half of the 20th century. Yet today, for a man of such international repute, within his profession he has many detractors and few admirers. Despite his later writings on birth, his name and fame are inextricably linked with schizophrenia. For the vast majority of psychiatrists, the name of Laing today conjures up images of psychedelic irresponsibility in which parents were blamed and patients misled.