This paper 1) examines Laing's critique of the neuro-biological model of schizophrenia, and 2) explicates the roots and ramifications of "social phenomenology" as a method of study for schizophrenic symptoms in Sanity, Madness and the Family . It attempts to show the inherent strengths, limitations and ambiguities in Laing's methodology, particularly with respect to organicist metaphors of "family pathology" and the role of psychoanalytic theory in phenomenological research. Finally, it poses the question: why has Laing's work on families and schizophrenia been so neglected of late?