INTERVIEW WITH DR. R.D. LAING

PERCEPTION IS A POLITICAL ACT

How we now perceive the global crisis —and communicate among ourselves in response to it—will have systemic consequences for humankind and the biosphere, for thousands of years to come.

Climate change, limits to growth, mass extinction, mass migration, economic turbulence, institutional dysfunctions, inequality, social unrest and democratic erosion threaten a collapse of civilisation. A non-violent transition to a regenerative future is still possible; but this would require a level of collaborative action between public and private stakeholders that seems impossible today because of their perceived conflicts of interest. The only way to overcome this blockage is to change our perception.

Perception is key, for we inhabit a kind of planetary ecology-of-mind — a complex dynamic cognitive system of conscious and unconscious ideas and messages which reciprocally contextualise, interact, feedback, influence, multiply, cancel or reinforce each other as they resonate throughout the global mind-at-large. These perceptions are embodied in our cultural worldviews, social structures, institutions and psyches. They include our body feelings, gut reactions, emotions, attitudes, assumptions, mindsets, narratives, values, principles, expectations, opinions, concepts, ideas and dreams. They maintain our myths, religions, spiritual beliefs, political ideologies, social structures, scientific paradigms, economic dogmas, certainties, prejudices, blind spots, cognitive biases, doubts, misunderstandings, confusions, illusions, delusions, suspicions, justifications, excuses, anxieties, hopes and fears.

Perception informs our conceptions of reality, order and chaos, space and time, life and death, good and bad, man and nature, mind and body, the individual and community, public and private, us and them. It shapes our notions of human nature, evolution, history, identity, gender, race, class, ethics, justice, love, human rights, responsibility, leadership, power, politics, property, progress, karma, compassion, creativity, art and sex. It makes the difference between war and peace, tyranny and democracy, oppression and freedom, authority and responsibility, servitude and sovereignty, poverty and wealth, passivity and action, ignorance and wisdom, success and failure. Perception structures the fundamental paradigms of our societies including science, technology, agriculture, medicine, education, economics, trade, security and governance. It pervades our communications media. It is immanent in our linguistic structures and vocabularies. It determines how we think and behave. Perception is a political act.

How citizens, governments and corporations see each other, how the rich see the poor, how we see ourselves and future generations, all this is interdependent —and perceptually changeable in the blink of an eye.

Another world is possible. The outcome of the crisis essentially depends on what we perceive, and this depends on our ways of seeing and discussing it. The time has therefore come to take personal and social responsibility for how we perceive and how we communicate.

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DR. R.D. LAING

Psychiatrist • Author, The Divided Self

FUTURE TAPES INTERVIEW BY MICHAEL O'CALLAGHAN • 1988

This is the transcript of a video interview produced and directed by Michael O'Callaghan as part of his Future Tapes interactive video exhibit in 1988.

BACKGROUND

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R.D. Laing (1927-1989) - known to his friends as Ronnie - was a visionary Scottish psychiatrist whose books The Divided Self (1960) and The Politics of Experience & The Bird of Paradise (1967) exploded like psychedelic firecrackers in the hallowed halls of the psychiatric establishment in the 1960s. By including context of family and society in the understanding and diagnosis of mental illness, Laing introduced a whole systems perspective which revealed that madness can be distributed throughout large groups of people, including whole societies, and that non-ordinary states of consciousness are often the pathway to healing. Laing pointed out that since the self-destructive society in which we live is itself psychotic, saving the planet requires a personal examination of our own insanity.

Ronnie Laing was an early participant in the Global Vision Project. This short interview - a time capsule from 1988 - is a sound bite recorded during the height of the nuclear arms race between the Soviet Union and the USA, when the global military budget was at an all all-time high of one trillion dollars per year.

How do you feel about the future?

We have achieved, in the last two or three generations, the capacity to kill ourselves. We are the only species we know that can do that. We've got to make up our minds about this. This is a crisis for the human species. We have biological weapons, nuclear weapons, and chemical weapons that can wipe us out - and all life-forms in the world - at the snap of a finger. We're very close to doing that. We need not do that. Are we going to do that?

Now we've got the capacity to do that, and capacity is sweet. Oppenheimer, when asked why he went for the hydrogen bomb, said "Well, it was so sweet, the capacity to do it was so sweet it was irresistible."

Can we resist species suicide? Whether we're good or evil, whether we're in power or not, are we going to keep this show on the road or not? If we want to, then we've got to put all our hearts and minds and souls into that project of survival.