Conversations with Adam and Natasha

by R.D. Laing

Famed psychologist Dr. R.D. Laing records conversations between himself, his two children (Adam and Natasha) and his wife Jutta. Brilliantly profound listening to the children speak their wisdom. The author points out that nothing is tampered with in the conversations besides some inadvertent ommissions. Also there are no after thoughts or annotations, for he felt he would like that job to someone else. Funny and charming, this book (although currently out of print)can make you appreciate children more often, and listening to them a great deal more.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Linguistics

149 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Ronald David Laing was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illness – in particular, the subjective experience of psychosis. Laing's views on the causes and treatment of serious mental dysfunction, greatly influenced by existential philosophy, ran counter to the psychiatric orthodoxy of the day by taking the expressed feelings of the individual patient or client as valid descriptions of lived experience rather than simply as symptoms of some separate or underlying disorder.

Laing was associated with the anti-psychiatry movement although he rejected the label.

Reviews

[Randy Cauthen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little Zen masters.

[Fiona Robson · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Famed psychologist Dr. R.D. Laing records conversations between himself, his two children (Adam and Natasha) and his wife Jutta. Brilliantly profound listening to the children speak their wisdom. The author points out that nothing is tampered with in the conversations besides some inadvertent ommissions. Also there are no after thoughts or annotations, for he felt he would like that job to someone else. Funny and charming, this book (although currently out of print)can make you appreciate children more often, and listening to them a great deal more.”

This was a small book, so a very quick read. It was also a delight to read, and a blessing to know that other people have equally surreal and bizarre conversations with their children! I thought it was just US!

[Andrew Barnett · Rating 1 out of 5]

R.D. Laing is brilliant, yes? But man is this book tedious. I work with children everyday, and they say beautiful, exceptional, interesting and insightful things all the time. I did not find the statements Laing's children made worth writing down- if you take the time to talk to children, what is in this book is not exceptional, it is just the way children talk. And the way children talk is wonderful and worth respecting and investing energy into understanding. If this book accomplishes that perspective shift for people who do not have an appreciation for children, wonderful. But I can't help but feel there are better ways to go about it.

[Christopher Whalen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange little book that I've been trying to get a hold of for a while. I think Roman Krznaric recommended this to me. It's been on my list of books to read after Finals for a long time. I can't remember why he recommended it. Probably because we were talking about how I didn't like children or didn't know how to talk to them; maybe Roman's children had just been born. It transcribes those weird little conversations parents have with their children, which someone I know now posts on Facebook, that are more interesting to the parents than they are to anyone else. R. D. Laing is a psychiatrist and therefore has an extra layer of interest in what children say, but he doesn't do any analysis in this book.

Will this change how I speak to children? I don't know. I think in the conversation that led to this recommendation I probably complained that adults speak to children in a different way than how they speak to adults: they speak down to them (particularly to other people's children); I probably expressed the sentiment that we should speak to children as if they are just people, other adults.

[Cristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mucho se ha hablado acerca de la comunicación insatisfactoria, las interacciones conflictivas y la anormalidad (intelectual, emocional, social). Laing refiere que "no obstante, la otra parte de la historia apenas ha sido objeto de atención".

Durante seis años, el autor fue anotando en un diario conversaciones con Adam y Natasha, sus dos hijos mayores. Afirma, asimismo, que ha seleccionado aquellas que respeten la privacidad familiar y que ha llevado a cabo esta tarea con el pleno acuerdo de su esposa e hijos.

"En las páginas sucesivas podremos observar el desarrollo emocional y cognoscitivo de dos niños cuyas facultades se hallan totalmente inalteradas y evolucionan en el complejo campo donde se entretejen las relaciones con los adultos, a los que no temen y a los que aman al igual que ellos mismos son amados".

[Lourens Van Hoorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leuk klein boekje

[Ffiamma · Rating 4 out of 5]

riportando stralci di conversazioni con i suoi figli, adam e natasha, laing ci mostra come sia possibile imparare qualcosa sui bambini dai bambini stessi, educarli senza troppe costrizioni, farli esprimere liberamente sugli argomenti più disparati. attraverso il "dialogo felice tra esseri intelligenti" scopriamo un'area libera e aperta dove genitori e figli possono giocare con la realtà, formulare domande e risposte, indagare sulle cose cose per il piacere di farlo- senza alcun commento o teorizzazione da parte dell'autore.
lettura molto interessante, libro purtroppo al momento fuori catalogo.

[Eszteranna · Rating 4 out of 5]

"nem halljuk az istenkopogást (szomorúan mosolyog)
az istenajtón kellene kopognia"

"-ne csináld
-de csinálom, ha nem engeded"

"Hagyd már abba! És hozzá ne nyúlj,
csak ha tudom, hogy nem te vagy!"

[caramels · Rating 3 out of 5]

tfw your children could very well be characters from a Samuel Beckett's book

Daddy: why did the peacock scream?
Adam: because he couldn't see himself
Natasha: because he wanted to hear himself


Adam is standing looking seriously puzzled
Daddy: what is it?
Adam: this stairway wasn't even here, until they put it here


Adam: (exulting after two glasses of wine)
Come to heaven!
Natasha: don't be silly, heaven is dead!