Luce, Leary, and LSD, 1963–1965
University of Illinois Press April 20, 2017 DOI: 10.5406/illinois/9780252039195.003.0006 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | LSD |
| Keywords | Psychedelic Hallucinogen Mind-altering substance Acid Media coverage Journalism Press Reporting Magazine articles Time magazine Life magazine 1960s culture Sixties Counterculture Historical context Mid-1960s Drug perception Drug experimentation Drug potential Drug controversy |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that Time and Life magazines were particularly protective of LSD and hopeful about its productive use by ordinary people, while treating Timothy Leary with skepticism but relying on his scholarship. |
Abstract
This chapter details the celebrity coverage of Timothy Leary in the early 1960s and interest in LSD at Time and Life, where the publisher Henry Luce was becoming increasingly outspoken about his interest in the drug. Reporters often treated Leary—a Harvard psychologist removed from his job as a result of drug experimentation—with skepticism while still permitting him to explain the LSD phenomenon and relying on his scholarship and wit. Journalists were often surprisingly accepting of Leary's conclusions about the drug experience, even while condemning his encouragement of drug use. Among the many magazines focusing attention on LSD, Time and Life were particularly protective of the technology and hopeful that it could be productively used by regular people.