The posthumous reputation of RD Laing, the controversial Scots-born psychiatrist, has suffered again after his daughter claimed he once beat her so violently her brothers had to intervene.

Karen Laing, his daughter from his first marriage, claimed in an interview that Laing physically and mentally abused her.

Last year his son Adrian was quoted as saying: "When people ask me what it was like to be RD Laing's son, I tell them it was a crock of ----."

Karen, now a psychotherapist in Glasgow, said her father, who died in 1989, had made his family endure a reign of terror.

She said she was just 17 when her father attacked her in 1973.

She alleged that Laing flew into a rage when told she had been high on drugs when she should have been baby-sitting for his second wife at their home in London.

The psychiatrist, who attracted headlines for blaming parents for the psychological problems of their children, travelled to the family home in Glasgow, where he assaulted her.

"There was a lot of violence when we were young - vicious, nasty stuff - and at times it home certainly felt an unsafe place to be," Karen added.

"There was that one incident involving physical abuse and violence towards me, but there were other incidents of verbal and emotional abuse.

"I was injured after it but it was also the impact that it had on me emotionally and psychologically that was very damaging. It wasn't just myself - there were other incidents.

"There were so many different parts to my father. He was a tortured soul, he was tormented, and he took that out on other people who were around him, but I am not saying that is an excuse for his behaviour."

Laing was notorious for persuading patients to take LSD with him, allegedly including actor Sir Sean Connery when he was in his 30s.

Last year, the decomposed body of Adrian Laing's half-brother, Adam, was found on the Balearic island of Formentera. A post-mortem found he died of a heart attack.