Jekyll and Hyde Revisited: Paradoxes in the Appreciation of Drug Experiences and Their Effects on Creativity
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs – September 01, 2002
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Paradoxically, psychedelic experiences, like those from psilocybin, often evoke simultaneous feelings of both "possession" by an external agency and profound liberation. While social psychology typically divides these into two opposed cultural interpretations—either revealing hidden truths or being under an irrational influence—the reality for artists engaged in creativity, as seen in visual culture, suggests a complex interplay. Experiential learning shows aesthetic traits in art reflecting both extremes, bridging the "demoniacal" and "psychedelic" in a single psychological reality, challenging our epistemology.
Abstract
Historically, states of intoxication--like dreams and madness--are seen in either one of two opposed ways. The intoxicated are either "possessed" or "under the influence" of an external agency, or revealing hidden feelings or truths (in vino veritas). Along the same lines, artists who worked during LSD, mescalin or psilocybin intoxication often refer to feelings of either being "possessed" or "liberated," a difference that can be explained partly by their expectations and partly by their evaluations, which both tend to conform to the cultural dichotomy in interpreting the irrational. Both interpretations, however, tend to obscure not only the other, but also-it is posited-the paradoxical nature of the drug experience itself. Analysis of a protocol shows that intoxication might comprise feelings of "possession" as well as "liberation" almost simultaneously, and mediumistic and some psychedelic art shows stylistic traits that can be seen as the visual expressions of both these feelings. It seems that the "demoniacal" and "psychedelic" mode come together in experiential reality, only to be divided in the cultural sphere.