Back to Results
Cover image of Psychedelic Psychiatry
Cover image of Psychedelic Psychiatry
Share this Title:

Psychedelic Psychiatry

LSD from Clinic to Campus

Erika Dyck

Publication Date
Binding Type

LSD's short but colorful history in North America carries with it the distinct cachet of counterculture and government experimentation. The truth about this mind-altering chemical cocktail is far more complex—and less controversial—than generally believed.

Psychedelic Psychiatry is the tale of medical researchers working to understand LSD’s therapeutic properties just as escalating anxieties about drug abuse in modern society laid the groundwork for the end of experimentation at the edge of psychopharmacology. Historian Erika Dyck deftly recasts our understanding of LSD to show it as an...

LSD's short but colorful history in North America carries with it the distinct cachet of counterculture and government experimentation. The truth about this mind-altering chemical cocktail is far more complex—and less controversial—than generally believed.

Psychedelic Psychiatry is the tale of medical researchers working to understand LSD’s therapeutic properties just as escalating anxieties about drug abuse in modern society laid the groundwork for the end of experimentation at the edge of psychopharmacology. Historian Erika Dyck deftly recasts our understanding of LSD to show it as an experimental substance, a medical treatment, and a tool for exploring psychotic perspectives—as well as a recreational drug. She recounts the inside story of the early days of LSD research in small-town, prairie Canada, when Humphry Osmond and Abram Hoffer claimed incredible advances in treating alcoholism, understanding schizophrenia and other psychoses, and achieving empathy with their patients.

In relating the drug’s short, strange trip, Dyck explains how concerns about countercultural trends led to the criminalization of LSD and other so-called psychedelic drugs—concordantly opening the way for an explosion in legal prescription pharmaceuticals—and points to the recent re-emergence of sanctioned psychotropic research among psychiatric practitioners. This challenge to the prevailing wisdom behind drug regulation and addiction therapy provides a historical corrective to our perception of LSD’s medical efficacy.

Reviews

Reviews

Digs deeply into an area of drug history that has for the most part been ignored.

The story is very well written and researched... The book is a good read and has the bonus of imparting historical understanding of psychiatry during its most exciting and innovative era.

A smoothly written account.

Psychedelic Psychiatry is a highly nuanced work of scholarship that sheds new light on LSD research in Saskatchewan.

As Dyck shows well, LSD gives historians a lot to think about.

See All Reviews
About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
216
ISBN
9780801889943
Illustration Description
16 halftones
Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Psychedelic Pioneers
2. Simulating Psychoses
3. Highs and Lows
4. Keeping Tabs on Science and Spirituality
5. Acid Panic
6. "The Perfect Contraband"
Conclusion
Notes
Bibli

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Psychedelic Pioneers
2. Simulating Psychoses
3. Highs and Lows
4. Keeping Tabs on Science and Spirituality
5. Acid Panic
6. "The Perfect Contraband"
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Author Bio
Erika Dyck
Featured Contributor

Erika Dyck

Erika Dyck is an associate professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan.
Resources

Additional Resources