Documentary
Sweden 1977
60 Minutes
A film by Bob Foss and H.Å. Gabrielsson
Produced by The Swedish Film Institute
Watch film on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU1XofSupCw
Summary
In the sixties and seventies, Ronald D.LAING and his colleagues conducted the most radical experiment ever within the field of alternative psychiatry. A number of Community Houses were set up in different parts of London. Here people who were labeled by conventional psychiatry as “mentally ill” could live together on an equal basis, without medications or treatment in the usual sense. No staff, no “patients”, just sharing the challenges of life together.
The film offers a bird´s eye view of the various activities carried out in the context of these households. It includes an interview with R.D.Laing himself, and follows him on some of his workshops and seminars.
About the filmmaker
BOB FOSS was one of the first proponents of Laingian Existential Phenomenology in Scandinavia, radically criticizing the psychiatry of the day. He brought with him this conviction into his subsequent vocation as a film maker and screenwriter. He is the author of “FILM MAKING. Narrative and Structural Techniques” and has written several motion picture screenplays.