LSD's short but colorful history in North America carries with it
the distinct cachet of counterculture and government
experimentation. The truth about this mind-altering chemical
cocktail is far more complex -- and less controversial -- than
generally believed.
Psychedelic Psychiatry is the tale of medical researchers
working to understand LSD's therapeutic properties just as
escalating anxieties about drug abuse in modern society laid the
groundwork for the end of experimentation at the edge of
psychopharmacology. Historian Erika Dyck deftly recasts our
understanding of LSD to show it as an experimental substance, a
medical treatment, and a tool for exploring psychotic perspectives
-- as well as a recreational drug. She recounts the inside story of
the early days of LSD research in small-town, prairie Canada, when
Humphry Osmond and Abram Hoffer claimed incredible advances in
treating alcoholism, understanding schizophrenia and other
psychoses, and achieving empathy with their patients.
In relating the drug's short, strange trip, Dyck explains how
concerns about countercultural trends led to the criminalization of
LSD and other so-called psychedelic drugs -- concordantly opening
the way for an explosion in legal prescription pharmaceuticals --
and points to the recent re-emergence of sanctioned psychotropic
research among psychiatric practitioners. This challenge to the
prevailing wisdom behind drug regulation and addiction therapy
provides a historical corrective to our perception of LSD's medical
efficacy.
General
Imprint: |
Johns Hopkins University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
November 2008 |
First published: |
August 2008 |
Authors: |
Erika Dyck
(Professor, Tier 2 Canada Research Chair, Medical History and Graduate Director and and)
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 19mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
216 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8018-8994-3 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
Psychology >
States of consciousness >
Drug-induced states
|
LSN: |
0-8018-8994-4 |
Barcode: |
9780801889943 |
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