Expanding mindscapes: A global history of psychedelics

Revival, resurgence, renaissance-call it what you will, we are bearing witness to a second age of psychedelia in the West.It is well understood that the fruits borne of today's great scientific, therapeutic, and cultural advancements owe much to the seeds planted by the giants of the past.Yet when that past is discussed, the conversation is often dominated by the influence of only a select few parties-namely, prominent individuals and groups in the United States during "the sixties."In a new edited collection by Erika Dyck and Chris Elcock, Expanding Mindscapes: A Global History of Psychedelics, that dominant narrative is set aside to make way for a new chronicling of some of the neglected or forgotten, but vital, episodes of psychedelic history.In a past book, Psychedelic Psychiatry, Dyck recounts the history of Canada's most prominent psychedelic figures (e.g., Humphrey Osmond and Abram Hoffer), and last year, in Psychedelic New York, Elcock describes a branch of psychedelic history from that storied city.In this new work, these two historians of psychedelia bring together authors from around the world with 20 dense yet accessible chapters that are sure to contribute to a better awareness of just how international and interconnected our psychedelic past is.It may come as a surprise that in a collection of essays promising to go against the grain of popular history, the Introduction kicks off with the likes of Timothy Leary, Charles Manson, San Francisco, and Woodstock.Yet just before the Introduction, three beautiful maps highlight the flow of scientific research on both naturally derived and synthetic psychedelics, giving the reader a visual primer on their historical origination and dissemination across the globe-from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to Europe and North and South America.It is through these flows, as the reader is oft reminded throughout the text, that diverse forms of knowledge and culture can be created in one area, land in the hands and minds of scientists, therapists, and counterculturalists in another, blend with local cultures and contexts, and then reemerge somewhere else having undergone yet another transformation.This is the historical portrait Expanding Mindscapes presents.The chapters are split into three parts, though the boundaries between them are not always easy to discern.The chapters contained in Part I, "Evaluating Evidence/Experience," demonstrate just how distinct the historical, cultural, and ideological contexts were behind experimental traditions in mid-century psychedelic research, and how those contexts in turn could intimately shape psychedelic experiences, interpretations, and insight.Both chapters two and three, for example, delve into the lesser-explored (psychedelic) history of the renowned Sainte-Anne Hospital in post-World War II France.Gautier Dassonneville's essay, "Mescaline, Between Psychopathology and Phenomenology: Sartre and Experimentation in 1930s France," illuminates the eminent philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre's mescaline experimentation during his inquiries into the realm of imagination.The chapter offers insights into an obscure story of psychedelic research situated at the intersection of philosophical discourse and medical discussions surrounding psychopathology and phenomenology.Next, in one of my favorite chapters, Zo€ e Dubus, in "Women, Mental Illness, and Psychedelic Therapy in Postwar France," uses Sainte-Anne's LSD research to expose a series of problems ingrained within French psychiatry.Within the prevailing psychiatric culture, emphasis was placed on biological over social factors, scientific rigor over therapeutic effectiveness, detached over compassionate approaches, patriarchal over egalitarian principles, and stoic