Norman X
SIR..—In the review headed 'Norman X' by A. Alvarez (May 7). the critic writes: `Violence and schizophrenia as values in themselves is not a con- cept original to Mailer or America. Over here the Psychiatrist R. D. Laing has, if I understand him rightly, been promoting much the same thesis: that "madness" may give you truer and deeper insights into your own reality than "sanity." ' I am not a doctor, but I have had four years on the panel of one of the Mental Health Review Tribunals and probably understand enough to have some criteria to judge this difficult subject by. in spite of my deep respect for A. Alvarez, I think he is mistaken about R. D. Laing, though I know Laing has said some things which might lead to a view about him like that of Alvarez. But I think that if Alvarez reads three of Laing's recent books he will see he was mistaken. These are The Divided Self (1960), The Self and Others (1961) and, with A. Estcrion, Sanity, Madness and the Family (1964), all published by Tavistock Publications Limited, 11 New Fetter Lane, EC4. The subject is immensely important. More hos- pital beds in Britain are filled by diagnosed schizo- phrenics than by victims of any other named disease. One of the difficulties is pinpointed on page
5 of the last book. schizophrenic we mean here a person who has been diagnosed as such and has come to be treated accordingly.' The facts behind this seem to me immensely important.
HUGH HECKSTALL-SMITH
Tomes, South Devon
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