Confronting the figure of the "mad scientist" in psychedelic history: LSD's use as a correctional tool in the postwar period.
Frontiers in Psychology 2023 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1129428 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | LSD |
| Keywords | Canada Mad scientists Prisons Psychedelic history Psychedelic research psychedelics Hallucinogens Mind-altering drugs Prison reform corrections Rehabilitation Penal system Incarceration Canadian healthcare |
| Citations | 6 |
| Key points | Argues that historical examples of LSD use as a correctional tool in Canada reveal how institutional contexts shaped psychedelic therapy, and that today's therapists must consider this broader context. |
Abstract
Since reports about CIA-funded LSD studies came out in the 1970s, psychedelic drugs have invoked images of unethical experimentation and "mad scientists" in the public imagination. Even now, as the stigma surrounding psychedelics diminishes in the 21st century, the figure of the "mad scientist" continues to occupy a space in what Ido Hartogsohn calls the "collective set and setting," the larger framework of cultural understandings that shape how individuals experience psychedelic drugs. Scientists and humanities scholars who study these drugs have responded to this issue by drawing boundaries between those who used psychedelics carefully and those who used them ignorantly. Yet these boundaries were not always so clear in the past. Drawing on historical examples of LSD's use as a correctional tool in Canada, I show how enthusiasm about the drug's potential led several experienced and knowledgeable psychedelic therapists to use it on vulnerable populations in diverse institutional settings, such as correctional facilities. These examples reveal how the institutional context of modern industrial societies shaped the application of psychedelic therapy in the past and suggest that today's therapists need to carefully consider how this broader context impacts their work.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on LSD, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Experimental Use of Psychedelic (LSD) Psychotherapy | 1970 | Historical analysis | |
| LSD: My Problem Child | 1981 | Historical analysis | |
| On the Use and Abuse of LSD | 1968 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Use of Music in Psychedelic (LSD) Psychotherapy | 1972 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Flashbacks: Recurrent Intrusive Images After the Use of LSD | 1969 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 5
- On the social epistemology of psychedelic experience Philosophical Psychology June 27, 2024
- Ethical Considerations Regarding Psychedelics for Clinical Pain Research. Journal of Pain Research 2024
- Psychedelics beyond medicine: Treatment, enhancement, hype, consent, and the limits of medicalization Philosophical Psychology September 8, 2025
- LGBTQ+ Ayahuasca Retreat Experience is Associated with Benefits to Mental Health, Quality of Life, and Spiritual Well-Being: A Prospective, Naturalistic Study. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs March 13, 2026
- Transgender and gender-expansive psychedelic users’ concerns about colonization, racism, and medicalization in western psychedelic science Psychedelics March 7, 2026
Cites 4
- Mescaline, LSD, Psilocybin, and Personality Change a Review† Psychiatry May 1, 1963
- Psychedelic medicalization, public discourse, and the morality of ego dissolution International Journal of Cultural Studies June 9, 2021
- American Trip The MIT Press eBooks July 14, 2020
- Tactics of Legitimation in the Psychedelic Sciences American Behavioral Scientist September 11, 2012