Jekyll and Hyde Revisited: Paradoxes in the Appreciation of Drug Experiences and Their Effects on Creativity

Intoxication, like dreams and madness, has historically been interpreted through two opposing cultural lenses: either as possession by an external agency or as liberation that reveals hidden truths (in vino veritas). Artists under LSD, mescaline, or psilocybin similarly describe feeling either possessed or liberated, influenced by their expectations and cultural dichotomies. However, analysis of a protocol suggests that intoxication can involve both possession and liberation almost simultaneously. Mediumistic and some psychedelic art display stylistic traits expressing both feelings. The demoniacal and psychedelic modes merge in experiential reality but are divided culturally.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Historically, states of intoxication--like dreams and madness--are seen in either one of two opposed ways. The intoxicated are either "possessed" or "under the influence" of an external agency, or revealing hidden feelings or truths (in vino veritas). Along the same lines, artists who worked during LSD, mescalin or psilocybin intoxication often refer to feelings of either being "possessed" or "liberated," a difference that can be explained partly by their expectations and partly by their evaluations, which both tend to conform to the cultural dichotomy in interpreting the irrational. Both interpretations, however, tend to obscure not only the other, but also-it is posited-the paradoxical nature of the drug experience itself. Analysis of a protocol shows that intoxication might comprise feelings of "possession" as well as "liberation" almost simultaneously, and mediumistic and some psychedelic art shows stylistic traits that can be seen as the visual expressions of both these feelings. It seems that the "demoniacal" and "psychedelic" mode come together in experiential reality, only to be divided in the cultural sphere.