Publications


Selected Publications

by M. Guy Thompson

A full list of publications can be found in the Curriculum Vitae
The Death of Desire: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness. (2nd revised edition).(2016) New York and London: Routledge.
The Legacy of R. D. Laing: An Appraisal of His Contemporary Relevance. (Ed.) (2015) London and New York: Routledge.
The Ethic of Honesty: The Fundamental Rule of Psychoanalysis.(2004) Amsterdam and New York: Editions Rodopi. (cloth & paperback editions)
The Truth about Freud’s Technique: The Encounter with the Real.(1994) New York and London: New York University Press.
(clothbound edition)
(1995) New York and London: New York University Press.(paperback edition)
The Death of Desire: A Study in Psychopathology.(1985) New York and London: New York University Press.
(clothbound edition)
(1986) New York and London: New York University Press.(paperback edition)

Essays in Existential Psychoanalysis: On the Primacy of Authenticity.
(In press) London and New York: Routledge. (cloth & paperback editions)

The Heart of the Matter: The Trials and Tribulations of Love Relationships.
(In preparation)

R. D. Laing in the Twenty-First Century: The Talks From Esalen Institute. (Ed.).
(In preparation)

Downloadable Books

 

The Phenomenology of Desire in Psychoanalytical Knowledge. (1985) (14MB)

Downloadable Journal Articles

 

Sanity and Friendship: The Therapeutic Element of Residential Living
Journal of Humanistic Psychology, p. 1-12, 2018.

 

R.D. Laing and Anti-Psychopathology: The Myth of Mental Illness Redux
Psychotherapy in Australia, Vol. 20, No. 4: August 2014.

 

A Road Less Traveled: The Dark Side of R.D. Laing’s Conception of Authenticity Psychotherapy in Australia, Vol. 18, No. 2: February 2012.

 

Happiness and chance: A reappraisal of the psychoanalytic conception of suffering. Psychotherapy in Australia, Vol. 17, No. 3: May 2011.

 

The Demise of the Person in the Psychoanalytic Process. fort da: The Journal of Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology. Vol. 16, No. 2: November 2010.

 

The Demise of the Person in the Psychoanalytic Situation. Psychotherapy in Australia. Vol. 17, No. 1: November 2010.

 

R. D. Laing’s Legacy to the Psychotherapy Experience. The Psychotherapist (a publication of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy [UKCP]). Issue 43, 2009.

 

Vicissitudes of Authenticity in the Psychoanalytic Situation. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 42, No. 2:139-176, 2006.

 

A Road Less Traveled: The Hidden Sources of R. D. Laing’s Enigmatic Relationship with Authenticity. Existential Analysis, Volume 17, No. 1, 2006.

 

Happiness and Chance: A Reappraisal of the Psychoanalytic Conception of Suffering. Psychoanalytic Psychology, Volume 21, No. 1:134-153, 2004.

 

Nietzsche and Psychoanalysis: The Fate of Authenticity in a Postmodernist World. Existential Analysis. Volume 15, No. 2, 2004.

 

The Enigma of Honesty: The Fundamental Rule of Psychoanalysis. Free Associations, Volume 8, Part 3 (No. 47):390-434, 2001.

 

Is the Unconscious Really all that Unconscious?: The Role of Being and Experience in the Psychoanalytic Encounter. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 3, No. 47:571-612, 2001.

 

The Sceptic Dimension to Psychoanalysis: Toward an Ethic of Experience. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 36, No. 3:457-481, 2000.

 

Logos and Psychoanalysis: The Role of Truth and Creativity in Heidegger’s Conception of Language. Psychologist Psychoanalyst. Volume 20, No. 4: Fall, 2000.

 

“Free Association:” A Technical Principle or Model for Psychoanalytic Education? Psychologist Psychoanalyst. Volume 20, No. 2:34-39 Spring, 2000.

 

The Heart of the Matter: R. D. Laing’s Enigmatic Relationship with Psychoanalysis. The Psychoanalytic Review, No. 87, No. 4:483-509, 2000.

 

The Crisis of Experience in Contemporary Psychoanalysis. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 36, No. 1:29-56, 2000.

 

The Fundamental Rule of Psychoanalysis. The Psychoanalytic Review, Volume 85, No. 5:697-715, 1998.

 

Manifestations of Transference: Love, Friendship, Rapport. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 34, No. 4:543-561, 1998.

 

(with Sharada Thompson) Interview with Dr. Otto Allen Will, Jr.. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 34, No. :289-304, 1998.

 

The Fidelity To Experience In R. D. Laing’s Treatment Philosophy. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 33, No. 4:595-614, 1997.

 

The Rule of Neutrality. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, Volume 19, No. 1:57-84, 1996.

 

Freud’s Conception of Neutrality. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 32, No. 1, 1996.

 

Deception, Mystification, Trauma: Laing and Freud. The Psychoanalytic Review, Volume 83, No. 6:827-847, 1996.

 

The Existential Dimension to Termination. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, Volume 17, No. 3:355-386, 1994.

 

Downloadable Chapters in Books / Anthologies

R.D. Laing Revisited: A dialogue on his contribution to authenticity and the skeptic tradition, by Michael Guy Thompson and John M. Heaton In Existential Psychotherapy: Legacy, Vibrancy and Dialogue (Ed., Laura Barnett and Greg Madison). London and New York: Routledge, 2012.

 

Phenomenology of Intersubjectivity: A Historical Overview of the Concept and Its Clinical Implications. From Intersubjectivity and Relational Theory in Psychoanalysis (Ed. Jon Mills). Hillsdale, N. J. and London: Jason Aronson, Inc., 2005.

 

Postmodernism and Psychoanalysis: A Heideggerian Critique of Postmodern Malaise and the Question of Authenticity. From Way Beyond Freud: Postmodern Psychoanalysis Evaluated (Eds., J. Reppen, M. Schulman, J. Tucker). London: Open Gate Press, 2004.

 

The Primacy of Experience in R. D. Laing’s Approach to Psychoanalysis. From Understanding Experience: Psychotherapy, Philosophy, and Postmodernism (Ed., Roger Frie). New York and London: Routledge, 2003.

 

Existential Psychoanalysis — A Laingian Perspective. From Psychoanalytic Versions of the Human Condition and Clinical Practice (Eds., Paul Marcus and Alan Rosenberg). New York: New York University Press, 1998.

Downloadable Book Reviews

Therapeutic Action: An Earnest Plea for Irony, Jonathan Lear, New York: The Other Press, 2006. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, Volume 39, No. 2, 2008.

 

Apprehending the Inaccessible: Freudian Psychoanalysis and Existential Phenomenology, Richard Askay and Jensen Farquhar, Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2006. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, Volume 38, No. 1, 2007.

 

Nietzsche’s Presence in Freud’s Life and Thought on the Origins of a Psychology of Dynamic Unconscious Mental Functioning, Ronald Lehrer, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995, xi + 370 pp. The Psychoanalytic Review, Volume 87, No. 3:463-467, 2000.

 

Public Lectures

“The Heart of the Matter: Eros and Agape,” Michael Guy Thompson, PhD, R.D. Laing in the 21st Century Symposium, Esalen, Big Sur, July 23, 2018.

 

“Sartre and Psychoanalysis” Michael Guy Thompson, PhD, keynote address, 23rd Meeting of North American Sartre Society, University of La Verne, CA, November 3-5, 2017.

 

“On Falling in Love,” Michael Guy Thompson, PhD, invited address, R.D. Laing in the 21st Century Symposium, Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, CA, July 17, 2017.

 

“Acerca de Enamorarse,” Michael Guy Thompson, PhD, address translated into Spanish, R.D. Laing in the 21st Century Symposium, Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, CA, July 17, 2017.

 

“On Sympathy: The Role of Love in the Therapeutic Encounter,” M. Guy Thompson, PhD, an earlier version of this paper was given at R.D. Laing Symposium, Esalen, August 8, 2016.

 

“Sanity and Friendship,” Michael Guy Thompson, PhD, an earlier version of this paper was presented at R.D. Laing Symposium, Esalen, July 15, 2015.

 

“R.D. Laing and Anti-Psychopathology: The Myth of Mental Illness Redux” Invited paper presented at the R.D. Laing in the Twenty-First Century Symposium, in honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death. Wagner College, Staten Island, October 26, 2013.

 

“Existential Freud: Converting Neurotic Misery into Common Unhappiness.” Invited address presented at the Seventh Annual Conference of the Existential Humanistic Institute, Age Song Institute, San Francisco, CA, November 15-16, 2013.

Media

The Enigma of Happiness and Why It Is So Elusive, live video discussion with Michael Guy Thompson and Fernando Castrillon, April 2019

“Authentic Connection in Madness,” an interview conducted by Stacy Duffy on Psychosis Summit radio on December 13, 2018 with Dr. Michael Guy Thompson describing his work with R.D. Laing and his Gnosis Retreat Center project

“The Legacy of R.D. Laing, Michael Guy Thompson, Madness Radio” Is psychosis a journey and a breakthrough to somewhere more authentic? Should unhappy people be made to adjust to a mad society? Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing was a fierce critic of the mental health system, and saw madness as a rational adaptation to irrational family and social constraints. First aired on April 12, 2018

“Falling in Love as an Altered State,” a public lecture by Michael Guy Thompson, given at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, March 30, 2017

An interview with Michael Guy Thompson on The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour, reveals an incredible and enlightening story of working for four years with pioneer psychiatrist and philosopher R.D. Laing in one of his therapeutic houses. Recorded on October 2, 2013.

“You Can’t Teach Therapists How to Connect…,” Peter Brensinger interview. R.D. Laing 2013 Symposium, October 2013: http://youtu.be/-Z5AYus_JAw

Blog: “Living in One of R.D. Laing’s Post Kingsley Hall Households” by Michael Guy Thompson, posted on November 17, 2013 at Palace Gate Counselling Service: https://palacegatecounsellingservice.wordpress.com/2013/11/

Blog: “Authenticity and R.D. Laing” by Michael Guy Thompson, posted on December 5, 2011 at Northern Existential Group

“Sartre and Psychoanalysis: The Role of Freedom in the Clinical Encounter” with Michael Guy Thompson, November 3, 2022, Southern Association for Psychotherapy and Counseling (SAFPAC) Seminar Series

On Interviews: Shades of Awakening, an interview with Dr. Michael Guy Thompson conducted by Dabney Alex.

 

“Authentic Connection in Madness,” an interview conducted by Stacy Duffy on Psychosis Summit radio on December 13, 2018 with Dr. Michael Guy Thompson describing his work with R.D. Laing and his Gnosis Retreat Center project.

 

“The Legacy of R.D. Laing, Michael Guy Thompson, Madness Radio” Is psychosis a journey and a breakthrough to somewhere more authentic? Should unhappy people be made to adjust to a mad society? Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing was a fierce critic of the mental health system, and saw madness as a rational adaptation to irrational family and social constraints. First aired on April 12, 2018.

 


“Falling in Love as an Altered State,” a public lecture by Michael Guy Thompson, given at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, March 30, 2017.

 

An interview with Michael Guy Thompson on The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour, reveals an incredible and enlightening story of working for four years with pioneer psychiatrist and philosopher R.D. Laing in one of his therapeutic houses. Recorded on October 2, 2013.

 

“You Can’t Teach Therapists How to Connect…,” Peter Brensinger interview, R.D. Laing 2013 Symposium, October 2013: http://youtu.be/-Z5AYus_JAw.

 

Blog: “Living in One of R.D. Laing’s Post Kingsley Hall Households” by Michael Guy Thompson, posted on November 17, 2013 at Palace Gate Counselling Service: https://palacegatecounsellingservice.wordpress.com/2013/11/.

 

Blog: “Authenticity and R.D. Laing” by Michael Guy Thompson, posted on December 5, 2011 at Northern Existential Group.

Articles on R.D. Laing

R.D. Laing and Anti-Psychopathology: The Myth of Mental Illness Redux
Psychotherapy in Australia, Vol. 20, No. 4: August 2014.

 

A Road Less Traveled: The Dark Side of R.D. Laing’s Conception of Authenticity
Psychotherapy in Australia, Vol. 18, No. 2: February 2012.

 

R.D. Laing Revisited: A dialogue on his contribution to authenticity and the skeptic tradition, by Michael Guy Thompson and John M. Heaton In Existential Psychotherapy: Legacy, Vibrancy and Dialogue (Ed., Laura Barnett and Greg Madison). London and New York: Routledge, 2012.

 

R. D. Laing’s Legacy to the Psychotherapy Experience. The Psychotherapist (a publication of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy [UKCP]). Issue 43, 2009.

A Road Less Traveled: The Hidden Sources of R. D. Laing’s Enigmatic Relationship with Authenticity. Existential Analysis, Volume 17, No. 1, 2006.

 

The Heart of the Matter: R. D. Laing’s Enigmatic Relationship with Psychoanalysis. The Psychoanalytic Review, No. 87, No. 4:483-509, 2000.

 

The Fidelity To Experience In R. D. Laing’s Treatment Philosophy. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 33, No. 4:595-614, 1997.

 

Deception, Mystification, Trauma: Laing and Freud. The Psychoanalytic Review, Volume 83, No. 6:827-847, 1996.

 

The Primacy of Experience in R. D. Laing’s Approach to Psychoanalysis. From Understanding Experience: Psychotherapy, Philosophy, and Postmodernism (Ed., Roger Frie). New York and London: Routledge, 2003.

Existential Psychoanalysis — A Laingian Perspective. FromPsychoanalytic Versions of the Human Condition and Clinical Practice (Eds., Paul Marcus and Alan Rosenberg). New York: New York University Press, 1998.

Existential Themes

R.D. Laing and Anti-Psychopathology: The Myth of Mental Illness Redux. Psychotherapy in Australia, Vol. 20, No. 4: August 2014.

 

A Road Less Traveled: The Dark Side of R.D. Laing’s Conception of Authenticity Psychotherapy in Australia, Vol. 18, No. 2: February 2012.

 

R.D. Laing Revisited: A dialogue on his contribution to authenticity and the skeptic tradition, by Michael Guy Thompson and John M. Heaton In Existential Psychotherapy: Legacy, Vibrancy and Dialogue (Ed., Laura Barnett and Greg Madison). London and New York: Routledge, 2012.

 

Vicissitudes of Authenticity in the Psychoanalytic Situation. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 42, No. 2:139-176, 2006.

 

Nietzsche and Psychoanalysis: The Fate of Authenticity in a Postmodernist World. Existential Analysis. Volume 15, No. 2, 2004.

 

Is the Unconscious Really all that Unconscious?: The Role of Being and Experience in the Psychoanalytic Encounter. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 3, No. 47:571-612, 2001.

 

The Sceptic Dimension to Psychoanalysis: Toward an Ethic of Experience. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 36, No. 3:457-481, 2000.

 

Logos and Psychoanalysis: The Role of Truth and Creativity in Heidegger’s Conception of Language. Psychologist Psychoanalyst. Volume 20, No. 4: Fall, 2000.

 

The Crisis of Experience in Contemporary Psychoanalysis. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 36, No. 1:29-56, 2000.

 

The Existential Dimension to Termination. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, Volume 17, No. 3:355-386, 1994.

 

Phenomenology of Intersubjectivity: A Historical Overview of the Concept and Its Clinical Implications. From Intersubjectivity and Relational Theory in Psychoanalysis (Ed. Jon Mills). Hillsdale, N. J. and London: Jason Aronson, Inc., 2005.

 

Postmodernism and Psychoanalysis: A Heideggerian Critique of Postmodern Malaise and the Question of Authenticity. From Way Beyond Freud: Postmodern Psychoanalysis Evaluated (Eds., J. Reppen, M. Schulman, J. Tucker). London: Open Gate Press, 2004.

 

Apprehending the Inaccessible: Freudian Psychoanalysis and Existential Phenomenology, Richard Askay and Jensen Farquhar, Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2006. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, Volume 38, No. 1, 2007.

 

Nietzsche’s Presence in Freud’s Life and Thought on the Origins of a Psychology of Dynamic Unconscious Mental Functioning, Ronald Lehrer, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995, xi + 370 pp. The Psychoanalytic Review, Volume 87, No. 3:463-467, 2000.

 

Note: See also all articles listed under R.D. Laing for more on existential themes.

Articles on Sigmund Freud

Happiness and chance: A reappraisal of the psychoanalytic conception of suffering. Psychotherapy in Australia, Vol. 17, No. 3: May 2011.

 

The Enigma of Honesty: The Fundamental Rule of Psychoanalysis . Free Associations, Volume 8, Part 3 (No. 47):390-434, 2001.

 

Is the Unconscious Really all that Unconscious?: The Role of Being and Experience in the Psychoanalytic Encounter . Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 3, No. 47:571-612, 2001.

 

The Sceptic Dimension to Psychoanalysis: Toward an Ethic of Experience . Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 36, No. 3:457-481, 2000.

 

Manifestations of Transference: Love, Friendship, Rapport . Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 34, No. 4:543-561, 1998.

 

Freud’s Conception of Neutrality . Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 32, No. 1, 1996.

 

Deception, Mystification, Trauma: Laing and Freud . The Psychoanalytic Review, Volume 83, No. 6:827-847, 1996.

 

The Existential Dimension to Termination . Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, Volume 17, No. 3:355-386, 1994.

 

Apprehending the Inaccessible: Freudian Psychoanalysis and Existential Phenomenology , Richard Askay and Jensen Farquhar, Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2006. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, Volume 38, No. 1, 2007.

 

Nietzsche’s Presence in Freud’s Life and Thought on the Origins of a Psychology of Dynamic Unconscious Mental Functioning , Ronald Lehrer, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995, xi + 370 pp. The Psychoanalytic Review, Volume 87, No. 3:463-467, 2000.

 

Articles on Technique

The Demise of the Person in the Psychoanalytic Situation. Psychotherapy in Australia. Vol. 17, No. 1: November 2010.

 

Vicissitudes of Authenticity in the Psychoanalytic Situation . Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 42, No. 2:139-176, 2006.

 

The Enigma of Honesty: The Fundamental Rule of Psychoanalysis . Free Associations, Volume 8, Part 3 (No. 47):390-434, 2001.

 

The Sceptic Dimension to Psychoanalysis: Toward an Ethic of Experience . Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 36, No. 3:457-481, 2000.

 

The Crisis of Experience in Contemporary Psychoanalysis . Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 36, No. 1:29-56, 2000.

 

The Fundamental Rule of Psychoanalysis . The Psychoanalytic Review, Volume 85, No. 5:697-715, 1998.

 

The Fidelity To Experience In R. D. Laing’s Treatment Philosophy . Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 33, No. 4:595-614, 1997.

 

The Rule of Neutrality . Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, Volume 19, No. 1:57-84, 1996.

 

Freud’s Conception of Neutrality . Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 32, No. 1, 1996. 

 

Deception, Mystification, Trauma: Laing and Freud . The Psychoanalytic Review, Volume 83, No. 6:827-847, 1996

 

The Existential Dimension to Termination . Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, Volume 17, No. 3:355-386, 1994.

 

Phenomenology of Intersubjectivity: A Historical Overview of the Concept and Its Clinical Implications . From Intersubjectivity and Relational Theory in Psychoanalysis (Ed. Jon Mills). Hillsdale, N. J. and London: Jason Aronson, Inc., 2005.

 

Therapeutic Action: An Earnest Plea for Irony , Jonathan Lear, New York: The Other Press, 2006. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, Volume 39, No. 2, 2008.