Joseph Schorstein: R. D. Laing's 'rabbi'.

The Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing (1929-88) was one of the most influential but also one of the most controversial figures in twentieth-century psychiatry as he explored the boundaries in schizophrenia and serious mental illness in families. Joseph Schorstein (1909-76) was born in Moravia, graduated in medicine in Vienna, specialized in neurosurgery and eventually settled in Glasgow following wartime army service. Laing acknowledged the role of Schorstein as his 'spiritual mentor' and guide to the European intellectual world. This paper looks at the relationship between these two very different men and examines the career of Schorstein and the influence of his cultural background in Central Europe in shaping aspects of medical thought and culture in Glasgow.