Milan Hausner, the Sadská Clinic, and The Fate of LSD Psychotherapy in Communist Czechoslovakia
Ross Crockford
The MIT Press eBooks November 21, 2023 DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/14417.003.0008 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | LSD psychotherapy |
| Topics | LSD |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that psychiatry in communist Europe was more varied and complex than a simple tool of Soviet Pavlovian conditioning, and that LSD psychotherapy in 1960s Czechoslovakia was a distinctive chapter shaped by political liberalization and international psychedelic curiosity. Hausner, who supervised more than 3,000 LSD sessions, remains largely unknown despite extensive publication. |
Abstract
Hausner originally doubted that she could be helped.But as he listened to a recording of Hana's third LSD session, he saw some hope."The most pronounced aspect of this session is her archetypal regression into the realm of antiquity and to the very beginnings of humanity," Hausner later wrote. 1 "Hana is beginning to formulate a new attitude toward death and eternity."Over the next six months, Hana had twenty more sessions of LSD.Hausner told her that she might need sixty to be cured.* * * As Sarah Marks and others have detailed, 2 psychiatry in communist Eu rope was not merely an obedient lapdog to the Pavlovian conditioning promoted by the Soviet Union.It was far more varied and complex-and certainly one of its most unusual chapters concerns the use of LSD psychotherapy in 1960s Czecho slo va kia, when that country's progression to a more humane government, its increasing openness to Western Eu rope, and its developments in psychiatry and pharmacology all coincided with a worldwide curiosity about psychedelic drugs.Until recently, LSD therapy in Czecho slo va kia was known mainly through the work of Stanislav Grof (1931-), who practiced at Prague's Psychiatric Research Institute, moved to the US in 1967, and is today celebrated as one of the found ers of transpersonal psy chol ogy.But dozens of other Czech and Slovak psychiatrists also used LSD in psychotherapy, and the most dedicated and out spoken of them was Hausner, who supervised more than 3,000 LSD sessions, published research in more than 100 articles and books, and yet remains largely unknown, even in his homeland.Hausner grew up in Prague, the only child of an insurance clerk and a pharmacist.He was drawn to the healing arts early: in May 1945, during the uprising against Nazi Germany's occupation of Czecho slo va kia, he cared for fighters at Prague's barricades.3 Germany had closed Czech universities during the six-year occupation, so after the war, the need for young doctors was acute, and in 1948-the same year the communists seized control of Czecho slo va kia's government-Hausner enrolled in medicine at Prague's Charles University.After graduating in 1953, he practiced psychiatry in various places around the country, including a children's hospital.He married
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 |