LSD: My Problem Child
The Antioch Review 1981 DOI: 10.2307/4638477 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | LSD |
| Citations | 147 |
| Key points | Argues that LSD, psilocybin, and other hallucinogens constitute cracks in materialistic rationality that should be explored and perhaps widened. |
Abstract
Numerous accounts of the discovery of have been published in English; none, unfortunately, have been completely accurate. Here, at last, the father of details the history of his problem child and his long and fruitful career as a research chemist. In a real sense, this book is the inside story of the birth of the Psychedelic Age, and it cannot be denied that we have here a highly candid and personal insight into one of the most important scientific discoveries of our time, the signiflcance of which has yet to dawn on mankind. Surpassing its historical value is the immense philosophical import of this work. Never before has a chemist, an expert in the most materialistic of the sciences, advanced a Weltanschauung of such a mystical and transcendental nature. LSD, psilocybin, and the other hallucinogens do indeed, as Albert Hofmann asserts, constitute in the edifice of materialistic rationality, cracks we would do well to explore and perhaps widen. As a writer, it gives me great satisfaction to know that by this book the American reader interested in hallucinogens will be introduced to the work of Rudolf Gelpke, Ernst Junger, and Walter Vogt, writers who are all but unknown here. With the notable exceptions of Huxley and Wasson, English and American writers on the hallucinogenic experience have been far less distinguished and eloquent than they. This translation has been carefully overseen by Albert Hofmann, which made my task both simpler and more enjoyable. I am beholden to R. Gordon Wasson for checking the chapters on LSD's Mexican relatives and on Ska Maria Pastora for accuracy and style. Two chapters of this book—How Originated and LSD Experience and Reality— were presented by Albert Hofmann as a paper before the international conference Hallucinogens, Shamanism and Modern Life in San Francisco on the afternoon of Saturday, September 30, 1978. As a part of the conference proceedings, the first chapter has been published in the Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, Vol. 11 (1-2), 1979. Jonathan Ott
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 | |
| 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 | |
| Untoward Reactions to Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) Resulting in Hospitalization | 1965 | Historical analysis |
Citations in the library
Cited by 83
- The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2014
- Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences April 11, 2016
- The Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelic Drugs: Past, Present, and Future. Neuropsychopharmacology April 26, 2017
- Increased Global Functional Connectivity Correlates with LSD-Induced Ego Dissolution. Current Biology April 13, 2016
- The abuse potential of medical psilocybin according to the 8 factors of the Controlled Substances Act Neuropharmacology June 5, 2018
and 78 more in the library