Kingsley Hall - R.D. Laing and Kingsley Hall

R.D. Laing and Kingsley Hall

Following World War II, with the welfare state having undertaken much of the work advocated by the Lester sisters, Kingsley Hall continued on a quieter note as a youth hostel and community activity centre.

In 1965 R. D. Laing and his colleagues asked the Lesters for use of the Hall as a community for themselves and people in a state of psychosis. As a result Kingsley Hall became home to the Philadelphia Association and one of the most radical experiments in psychiatry. Based on the notion that psychosis, a state of reality akin to living in a waking dream, is not an illness simply to be eliminated through the electric shocks favoured in the Western tradition of the time but, as in other cultures, a state of trance which could even be valued as mystical or Shamanistic, it sought to allow schizophrenic people the space to explore their madness and internal chaos. Residents (in the grip of psychosis) were often treated with kindness and respect with sincere efforts to alleviate their suffering.

One notable resident of this experiment was Mary Barnes. Along with resident psychiatrist Joseph Berke, Mary later went on to write Two Accounts of a Journey Through Madness, describing her stay at Kingsley Hall and use of her mental condition as a vehicle for painting and creative expression. Her account became famous in the 1970s when it was used as the basis for the play Mary Barnes by David Edgar. Another notable resident was the renowned Norwegian author Axel Jensen.

The activities of residents in the "no-holds barred" experiment made the local community largely hostile to the project, and there were regular reports of harassment. After five years (from 1965 to 1970) the project was wound up and Kingsley Hall was boarded up. During the seventies it was severely damaged.