Kirjahaku

Psychedelic Revolutionaries recounts the history of hallucino­genic-drug research in Saskatchewan, Canada, and the roles played by Humphry Osmond, Abram Hoffer, and Duncan Blewett. They broke new ground in the 1950s and 60s in the use of hallucinogens like mescaline and LSD, the formulation of biochemical hypotheses for schizophrenia, and the development of thera­pies to treat alcoholism--until Timothy Leary hit the scene and undermined everything with his public pronouncements. Delving into the experiments, the researchers, as well as connections to notables like Aldous Huxley, Linus Pauling, and Alcoholics Anonymous Co-Founder Bill W, Psychedelic Revolutionaries examines popularly held myths surrounding the drugs. It shows how the Saskatchewan research made extensive contributions to this scientific field and led to radical innovations in mental health, many of which have applications and relevance today.

The post-World War II era was a tumultuous period in the world of psychiatry. Medical history has cast it as a clash between biology and psychoanalysis or as a time that lacked objectivism, that is until the introduction of psychotropic drugs such as chlorpromazine which triggered a change in our treatment of mental health as profound and far-reaching in its consequences as the war itself. In the early years of this psychopharmacological revolution, hallucinogens such as mescaline and LSD played as much of a role as other psychotropics. In fact, psychedelics constituted a scientific revolution in their own right, one that does not however fit the narrative of twentieth century scientific history.Looking beyond the countercultural manifestations and references that have for decades obfuscated the psychedelic story, historian P.W. Barber delves into a serious examination of both the science and the people behind the research. Showing why and how this experimentation unfolded, what its findings were and how these findings were received both within and outside the scientific community, Psychedelic Revolutionaries completely resets a long-misunderstood history by following the work of three pioneering psychiatrists - Humphry Osmond, who coined the term ‘psychedelic’ and administered Aldous Huxley his first dose of mescaline, Abram Hoffer and Duncan Blewett, also known as the ‘Leary of the North’. While considering how it is that scientific discoveries become accepted as established truths, Barber invites us to ask: what is it that makes a scientific discovery revolutionary?