Knots

Rating:
Summary: Our tangled lives and the games we play
Review: 'Knots' is Laing's dark, ultra-perceptive account of human relationships. Taking observed situations and distilling them into sets of exact, clear sentences, Laing achieves just the balance between the specific and the general to ensure that you will recognise each portrait either in your acquaintances or, most disturbingly, in yourself. Broadly mirroring the pattern of a life, from a child's observation of adults, through adult sexual relationships and finally to the nihilistic aspects of old age, 'Knots' was and still is a ground-breaking work, and when taken in context with Laing's other writings, forms a formidable source of insight into daily life.

Rating:
Summary: Blaming families
Review: A collection of well-written, and sometimes darkly humorous, dialogs and prose poems about the way people communicate and misunderstand each other. It's derived from Gregory Bateson's "double-bind" theory of how families make their members sick. Bateson promoted this as the cause of schizophrenia. Admirers of Laing should read the biography written by his son Adrian. Strangely enough it was never published in the US. You can get it from the UK Amazon,com site

Rating:
Summary: Illusrates ably the complexities of human relationships.
Review: Dr. Laings book, Knots, illustrates in terms we can easily understand the unusual complexities of human relationships, particularly involving loving or not loving. With apparent child-like simplicity Dr. Laing demonstrates for us what is intuitively complex and daunting. He clarifies what for us is emotional and psychological, using the knot as a metaphore for what we want to see about our relationships that is clouded and only vaguely sensed. To clarify is to confirm. To make visible what is troubling is to give the reader respect for their intuition and possibly even a grasp of how to deal with our relations with each otherl. The power of understanding our relating to others is here in a short text from which we can begin to unknot our mental perplexity and achieve for ourselves satisfying or at the very least, understood, relations with those we love.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, annoying, unnerving - a must read.
Review: Famed radical psychologist R.D. Laing's bizarre, one-of-a-kind (or at least first of its kind) book consists of five chapters of increasingly weird 'knots' - internal conversations that develop into obsessive debates. Laing uses his deceptively flat, simple style to brilliantly shed light on the way the mind works, and most of all the way it deals with relationships. It starts out easy enough to follow, but watch out - in the second chapter Laing turns the 'If it is me, it is not mine' knot into a masterpiece of convoluted reasoning, actually numbering each line and turning them into impossibly complex diagrams. Next comes the 'There is something Jack knows that Jill does not, but he does not know he does not know...' knot, which might prompt you to hurl the book at the wall after six pages of interminable mental gymnastics. But once you've made it through that, the rest of the book is a breeze, and the fifth chapter, the most opaque, is even a little disturbing. After you close the book, beware of turning every question that pops into your head into a knot - it starts to get a bit compulsive!

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, annoying, unnerving - a must read.
Review: I like this book. You like this book. I like this book cause you like this book. You like this book cause I like this book cause you like this book.

If you like this book then I like this book. If I like this book then you like this book. If you like this book cause I like this book, Then I must not like this book Cause you like this book.

If you are the cause of my liking this book I must not really like this book. If I am the cause of you likeing this book Then you must not really like this book. If you dont like this book cause I like this book Cause you like this book, Then I must not like the book Cause you dont like this book.

If you dont like this book cause I like this book cause you like this book cause I like this book, Then I dont like this book cause you like this book cause I like this book.

She thinks I bought this book cause she bought this book. He thinks I bought this book cause he bought this book. She thinks I bought this book cause she likes this book cause she bought this book. He thinks I bought this book cause he likes this book cause I like this book. She thinks that he likes this book cause I bought this book. He thinks that she likes this book cause I bought this book. If she thinks that I bought this book cause she likes this book and she bought this book, then I must not have bought it. She must have bought it for me.

(R.D. Laing's poetry inspired by schizophrenic thinking is a masterpiece in its own way. Wonderfully exhibits the way many people think and have internal conversation that is tied up in knots).

Rating:
Summary: Where to Next?
Review: I like this book. You like this book. I like this book cause you like this book. You like this book cause I like this book cause you like this book.

If you like this book then I like this book. If I like this book then you like this book. If you like this book cause I like this book, Then I must not like this book Cause you like this book.

If you are the cause of my liking this book I must not really like this book. If I am the cause of you likeing this book Then you must not really like this book. If you dont like this book cause I like this book Cause you like this book, Then I must not like the book Cause you dont like this book.

If you dont like this book cause I like this book cause you like this book cause I like this book, Then I dont like this book cause you like this book cause I like this book.

She thinks I bought this book cause she bought this book. He thinks I bought this book cause he bought this book. She thinks I bought this book cause she likes this book cause she bought this book. He thinks I bought this book cause he likes this book cause I like this book. She thinks that he likes this book cause I bought this book. He thinks that she likes this book cause I bought this book. If she thinks that I bought this book cause she likes this book and she bought this book, then I must not have bought it. She must have bought it for me.

(R.D. Laing's poetry inspired by schizophrenic thinking is a masterpiece in its own way. Wonderfully exhibits the way many people think and have internal conversation that is tied up in knots).

Rating:
Summary: The Emperor's New Clothes
Review: I've found no value in this book, despite holding Laing in high esteem for his compassion toward the mentally ill and his provocative challenges to the status quo. I'm thankful that some of his other books have been of so much value to me; this one I don't get.

"Knots" consists of an opening page which suggests that the patterns that follow would correlate significantly with actual problems in human relationships, followed by the patterns themselves. However, there is no example presented of any specific real incident involving any of these "knots". There is no suggestion as to how one might avoid such "knots" if one found oneself in them. There is no reference to other works of Laing or anyone else which might provide further information about such "knots". The patterns seem more wordplay than description to me. I don't see any effective connection between these patterns and real issues I've encountered: I haven't met any Jack or Jill's nor am I aware of having been one. My little brain may spare me from constructing such complicated thought patterns; perhaps I manage to become confused on my own with much simpler ways of thinking.

I'd suggest instead reading Gregory Bateson (if you're interested in how one can get stuck by what's said in a relationship), or something else by Laing if Laing's your interest, or Peter Handke's staggering play "Kaspar" if you like to find real meaning within apparent words of nonsense, or Dr. Seuss if you like intelligent playfulness with words.

Rating:
Summary: A Sample Knot
Review: Jill and Jack both want to be wanted

Jill wants Jack because he wants to be wanted Jack wants Jill because she wants to be wanted

Jill wants Jack to want *Jack to want Jack's want of her want for his want of her want of

Jack's want that Jill want Jack to want Jill to want Jack's want of her want for his want of her to want Jack to want*

*repeat sine fine

(page 49)

Rating:
Summary: One for the ages
Review: Knots is one of those books that you not only can but need to read and re-read throughout a lifetime. Laing really points out the ways in which we hinder ourselves, our relationships and our lives through these 'knots.'
For those out there who need a book with examples to see Laing's point more clearly, I would recommend 'Sanity, Madness and the family,' where one can see in concrete terms the things Laing points out "only" abstractlt in Knots.
HOwever, do not get me wrong, Knots is one of the best books ever written

Rating:
Summary: Them crazy dialectics
Review: One interminable little book Mr. Laing put together. RDL has fabricated a vis-à-vis discourse between Jack and Jill, which develops into a permutation poem akin to the late Brion Gysin. However, readers, be prepared. RDL may seem like a page turner at first glance, but the trick here is to read between the lines ---as always. "Irony" is the word for today, especially after reading Knots.