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E. Dyck

Psychedelics and Dying Care: A Historical Look at the Relationship Between Psychedelics and Palliative Care

March 1, 2020 / Anxiety Disorders / PTSD, LSD, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By /

Abstract

This article examines the historical relationship between psychedelics and palliative care. Historians have contributed to a growing field of studies about how psychedelics have been used in the past, but much of that scholarship focused on interrogating questions of legitimacy or proving that psychedelics had therapeutic potential. Palliative care had not yet developed as medical sub-specialty, more often leaving dying care on the margins of modern, pharmaceutical-based treatments. As psychedelic researchers in the 1950s began exploring different applications for psychoactive substances such as LSD and mescaline, however, dying care came into clearer focus as a potential avenue for psychedelics. Before that application gained momentum in clinical or philosophical discussions, psychedelics were criminalized and some of those early discussions were lost. This article looks back at historical discussions about LSD’s potential for easing the anxiety associated with dying, and considers how those early conversations might offer insights into today’s more articulated discussions about psychedelics in palliative care.
Dyck, E. (2019). Psychedelics and dying care: A historical look at the relationship between psychedelics and palliative care. Journal of psychoactive drugs, 51(2), 102-107., https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2019.1581308
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Psychedelic crossings: American mental health and LSD in the 1970s.

June 23, 2019 / Humanities & Art, LSD, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By / ,

Abstract

This article places a spotlight on lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and American mental health in the 1970s, an era in which psychedelic science was far from settled and researchers continued to push the limits of regulation, resist change and attempt to revolutionise the mental health market-place. The following pages reveal some of the connections between mental health, LSD and the wider setting, avoiding both ascension and declension narratives. We offer a renewed approach to a substance, LSD, which bridged the gap between biomedical understandings of ‘health’ and ‘cure’ and the subjective needs of the individual. Garnering much attention, much like today, LSD created a cross-over point that brought together the humanities and arts, social sciences, health policy, medical education, patient experience and the public at large. It also divided opinion. This study draws on archival materials, medical literature and popular culture to understand the dynamics of psychedelic crossings as a means of engendering a fresh approach to cultural and countercultural-based healthcare during the 1970s.
Richert, L., & Dyck, E. (2019). Psychedelic crossings: American mental health and LSD in the 1970s. Medical Humanities, medhum-2018., https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2018-011593
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Psychedelics and Dying Care: A Historical Look at the Relationship between Psychedelics and Palliative Care.

March 1, 2019 / Anxiety Disorders / PTSD, LSD, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By /

Abstract

This article examines the historical relationship between psychedelics and palliative care. Historians have contributed to a growing field of studies about how psychedelics have been used in the past, but much of that scholarship focused on interrogating questions of legitimacy or proving that psychedelics had therapeutic potential. Palliative care had not yet developed as medical sub-specialty, more often leaving dying care on the margins of modern, pharmaceutical-based treatments. As psychedelic researchers in the 1950s began exploring different applications for psychoactive substances such as LSD and mescaline, however, dying care came into clearer focus as a potential avenue for psychedelics. Before that application gained momentum in clinical or philosophical discussions, psychedelics were criminalized and some of those early discussions were lost. This article looks back at historical discussions about LSD’s potential for easing the anxiety associated with dying, and considers how those early conversations might offer insights into today’s more articulated discussions about psychedelics in palliative care.
Dyck, E. (2019). Psychedelics and Dying Care: A Historical Look at the Relationship between Psychedelics and Palliative Care. Journal of psychoactive drugs, 1-6., 10.1080/02791072.2019.1581308
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Psychedelics and psychotherapy in Canada: Humphry Osmond and Aldous Huxley.

August 1, 2018 / Papers, Psychology, Publications / By / ,

Abstract

The decade of the 1950s is well known among historians of psychiatry for the unprecedented shift toward psychopharmacological solutions to mental health problems. More psychiatric medications were introduced than ever before or since (Healy, 2002). While psychiatric researchers later credited these drugs, in part, for controlling psychotic, depressive, and anxious symptoms-and subsequently for emptying decaying psychiatric institutions throughout the Western world-psychiatrists also produced a number of other theories that relied on a more delicate and nuanced blending of psychotherapy and psychopharmacology. Canadian-based researchers were at the forefront of experiments combining mescaline, LSD, and psychoactive substances later described as “psychedelics.” From a relatively isolated setting on the Canadian prairies, in one of the most notorious mental hospitals in North America, this blending of traditions generated a unique approach. A close look at the correspondence between the psychiatrist Humphry Osmond and his friend, the writer Aldous Huxley, who shared interests in psychoactive substances and their effects on perception, and the stimulation of empathy, gives us an opportunity to explore how they developed their psychedelic approach to therapy in the 1950s. The combination of working in an isolated hospital, far from the main research powers in North America, produced a sense of regional incubation and required Osmond to look for collaborators well beyond his own field of psychiatry. (PsycINFO Database Record
Dyck, E., & Farrell, P. (2018). Psychedelics and psychotherapy in Canada: Humphry Osmond and Aldous Huxley. History of psychology, 21(3), 240., 10.1037/hop0000088.
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Who Is Keeping Tabs? LSD Lessons from the Past for the Future

April 29, 2018 / Ayahuasca, Humanities & Art, LSD, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By /

Abstract

Psychedelics fell from medical grace nearly half a century ago, but recent activity suggests that some researchers are optimistic about their return. Are they at risk, however, of facing the same historic challenges with a new generation of psychedelic enthusiasts, or have the circumstances changed sufficiently to allow for a new path forward? The twenty-first-century incarnation of psychedelic research resurrects some anticipated hypotheses and explores some of the same applications that clinicians experimented with 50 years ago. On the surface then, the psychedelic renaissance might be dismissed for retreading familiar ground. A deeper look at the context that gave rise to these questions, though, suggests that while some of the questions are common, the culture of neuroscience and the business of drug regulation have changed sufficiently to warrant a retrial. A close look at the history of psychedelics encourages us to think carefully about the roles of regulators, the enthusiasm of researchers, and our cultural fascination and/or repulsion with mind-altering molecules.

Dyck, E. (2018). Who Is Keeping Tabs? LSD Lessons from the Past for the Future. Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science: Cultural Perspectives, 1-17. 10.1007/978-3-319-76720-8_1
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LSD: a new treatment emerging from the past

August 4, 2015 / Humanities & Art, LSD, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By /

Introduction

Psychedelics fell from medical grace nearly half a century ago, but recent activity suggests that some researchers have “high hopes” for their return. 1,2 Over 60 years ago, Albert Hofmann at Sandoz Pharmaceutical Laboratories in Switzerland first synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and personally experienced its effects (later described as a voyage into madness or a chemically induced psychosis) in 1943. Hofmann’s drug opened up a new era of hallucinogenic research. Over the next 15 years, more than a thousand articles on the use of LSD appeared in medical and scientific publications. In 1957, that work gave rise to the term “psychedelic” to describe a mind-manifesting response, described by some as an experience that brought to light matters that had previously been part of the unconscious [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][…]

Dyck, E. (2015). LSD: a new treatment emerging from the past. CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association journal= journal de l’Association medicale canadienne. https://dx.doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.141358

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Land of the Living Sky with Diamonds: A Place for Radical Psychiatry?

October 1, 2007 / LSD, Papers, Publications / By /

Abstract

Dr. Humphry Osmond first published the term “psychedelic” in 1957 as a result of an extensive set of clinical investigations with d-lysergic acid diethylmide (LSD) that took place in Saskatchewan in the 1950s. In the post-World War Two period, Saskatchewan became an attractive destination for medical, and in this case psychiatric, researchers who wanted to pursue theoretical and practical investigations that challenged disciplinary boundaries and critically examined the relationship between medicine and the state. Partly as a result of Saskatchewan’s post-war political culture, the province became an intellectual sanctuary for medical experimentation that in some other contexts did not gain currency because it appeared too radical. This essay examines the way that psychedelic psychiatry emerged in that province and argues that the social, cultural and political environment in post-war Saskatchewan played a significant role in attracting researchers and supporting LSD research.

Dyck, E. (2007). Land of the living sky with diamonds: A place for radical psychiatry?. Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d’études canadiennes, 41(3), 42-66.
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