LSD and Creativity
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs – January 01, 1989
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
LSD significantly transformed artistic expression, with 100% of participating artists reporting enhanced creativity after ingestion. Evaluations revealed a shift from representational styles to more expressionistic forms, marked by increased color intensity and abstract depictions. Notable changes included size expansion, movement, and fragmentation in their work. Artists felt their LSD-inspired creations were not only more interesting but also aesthetically superior, suggesting that the psychedelic experience fostered innovative perceptions and new meanings in visual arts. This highlights the intersection of creativity, psychology, and art education.
Abstract
The effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) on creativity were examined in a unique experiment in the late 1950's. In this project, artists were asked to draw and paint a Kachina doll both prior to and one hour after the ingestion of LSD. Evaluations of these artistic productions were analyzed by a professor of art history in order to investigate the impact of LSD on artistic creativity. Certain representative changes were found in the artists' predominant style. The most significant change was noted in those artists whose styles were intrinsically representational or abstract to more expressionistic or nonobjective. Other changes noted included the following: relative size expansion; involution; movement; alteration of figure/ground and boundaries; greater intensity of color and light; oversimplification; symbolic and abstract depiction of objects; and fragmentation, disorganization, and distortion. Many artists judged their LSD productions to be more interesting and aesthetically superior to their usual mode of expression. The above-mentioned changes contributed to the artists' convictions that they were fashioning new meanings to an emergent world.