Ronald David Laing (1927-1989) was a pioneering and unconventional Scottish psychiatrist. His first book The Divided Self is still regarded as a seminal work on the inner world of a schizophrenic. Laing first became famous in the mid 1960s when he co-founded the therapeutic community Kingsley Hall in the East End of London and began his experiments with the therapeutic use of LSD. In the 1970s, Laing studied Zen Buddhism, published poetry, recorded an LP and ran rebirthing workshops across the world - activities which turned him into a guru of radical chic.