From 1974 until 1989 he studied and worked with R. D. Laing both in England and in Canada. He has given seminars and workshops in Hungary, Russia, Croatia, Serbia, Canada and the U.S.A. Steven Gans was born in Brooklyn in 1941, and attended Pennsylvania State University, where he obtained a Ph.D. in philosophy. He arrived in England in 1974, and since that time has been involved in psychotherapy. Steve Gans lived, with his family, in a therapeutic household founded by Dr Hugh Crawford, a good friend and colleague of Laing's, who died in 1980. These households were intended as places of refuge, community and dwelling. While living and studying with Hugh Crawford, Gans introduced Laing to the work of Emmanuel Levinas, who influenced Laing. s later work considerably.