Social History of Medicine
June 18, 2026
Jamie Banks
Abstract During the mid-1980s, British psychiatry erupted into a vehement debate about the disproportionate use of ‘cannabis psychosis’ as a clinical diagnosis amongst young Black men admitted into psychiatric care. Assessing contemporary suggestions that these unequal rates of diagnosis reflected elevated rates of drug use in Black communities more generally, this article uses sources such as...
Social History of Medicine
March 28, 2024
Alexander S. Dawson
Journal Article Erika Dyck and Chris Elcock (eds), Expanding Mindscapes: A Global History of Psychedelics Get access Erika Dyck and Chris Elcock (eds), Expanding Mindscapes: A Global History of Psychedelics, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2023. Pp. 520. $55.00 pbk. Alexander Dawson Alexander Dawson University at Albany, NY, USA asdawson@albany.edu Search for other works by this author on: Oxford...
Social History of Medicine
December 8, 2022
Stephen Lett, Erika Dyck
5 citations
Psychedelic-assisted therapy has attracted considerable clinical attention in the past decade for its ability to bring therapeutic benefits to patients in treatment-resistant categories. In contradistinction from other psychopharmaco-therapies, contemporary psychedelic therapists, like their predecessors, paid close attention to the 'set and setting', and argued that the mind-set of the subject...
Social History of Medicine
May 28, 2021
Per Haave, Willy Pedersen
7 citations
Abstract In the early-to-mid 1960s, there was considerable use of LSD in psychotherapy in several countries. However, its use gradually levelled off. Two explanations have been suggested: The first revolves around a ‘moral panic’ in the wake of the introduction of cannabis and LSD by subcultural youth groups. The second focuses on the lack of proof for the therapeutic efficacy of LSD at a time...
Social History of Medicine
December 18, 2019
Peder Clark
2 citations
Book review of Mike Jay, Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2019. Pp. 304. £18.99. ISBN 978 0 3002 3107 6.
Social History of Medicine
May 28, 2019
Nancy D. Campbell
2 citations
Delving into the unfolding correspondence that fills these lovingly crafted pages affords pleasure and no small dollop of prophecy as they chronicle the great friendship that manifested during the last decade of Aldous Huxley’s life and Humphrey Osmond’s most fertile period of research. Topics run from both men’s fascination with opening the doors of the mind to explore the biochemistry of...
Social History of Medicine
February 15, 2017
Nancy D. Campbell
Much of the drama of A Culture’s Catalyst revolves around ‘The Night in the Tipi’, a legendary night on the Red Pheasant Reserve in the autumn of 1956 when Abram Hoffer, Humphry Osmond, Duncan Blewett and Teddy Weckowicz, accompanied by two other white men, Doug Skagi, a journalist, and Gordon Skogland, a photographer, both from the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, participated in and documented a...
Social History of Medicine
March 4, 2015
Stephen Gordon
10 citations
The aim of this article is to analyse the popular perception of the nightmare in medieval Europe. The first section will explore the ways in which the base experience of the nightmare (as documented in neuropsychological research) was interpreted according to Church doctrine, classical dream theories and Galenic medicine. Then, with reference to the remedies used to protect the body against the...
Social History of Medicine
October 5, 2011
James Kennaway
42 citations
Music has long been associated with trance states, but very little has been written about the modern western discussion of music as a form of hypnosis or 'brainwashing'.However, from Mesmer's use of the glass armonica to the supposed dangers of subliminal messages in heavy metal, the idea that music can overwhelm listeners' self-control has been a recurrent theme.In particular, the concepts of...
Social History of Medicine
June 3, 2009
Alex Mold
18 citations
Journal Article Psychedelic Psychiatry: LSD From Clinic to Campus Get access Erica Dyck, Psychedelic Psychiatry: LSD From Clinic to Campus, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. Pp. 199. $35. ISBN 978 0 8018 8994 3. Alex Mold Alex Mold London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Alex.Mold@lshtm.ac.uk Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar...
Social History of Medicine
July 17, 2006
Erika Dyck
87 citations
Journal Article ‘Hitting Highs at Rock Bottom’: LSD Treatment for Alcoholism, 1950–1970 Get access Erika Dyck Erika Dyck * *Department of History and Classics/Division of Studies for Medical Education, 2–2 Tory Building , University of Alberta , Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H4 , Canada . E-mail: Erika.dyck@ualberta.ca Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar...