Really, Do You Love Me? - R. D. Laing

In this short, provocative work, psychiatrist R. D. Laing explores the contradictions, uncertainties and emotional tensions that shape intimate relationships. Known for challenging conventional psychiatric thinking, Laing examines how people communicate affection, seek reassurance and struggle to understand one another within families and close relationships. The book reflects his wider interest in the relationship between personal identity, emotional experience and the social world, inviting readers to question the assumptions behind everyday exchanges.

Laing presents the work as an experimental literary piece rather than a conventional psychology textbook, using dialogue and verse to explore love, identity, relationships and the contradictions of everyday communication. It belongs to the same body of writing in which he challenged assumptions about sanity, social behaviour and interpersonal relationships. The full title is Do You Love Me? An Entertainment in Conversation and Verse, first published in 1976, with this Penguin edition appearing in 1977.