Julian Trevelyan, Walter Maclay and Eric Guttmann: drawing the boundary between psychiatry and art at the Maudsley Hospital.

Summary

In 1938, psychiatrists Eric Guttmann and Walter Maclay studied the effects of the hallucinogenic drug mescaline on a group of artists, including surrealist painter Julian Trevelyan. Participants were asked to visually record their experiences, contributing to a growing intersection of psychiatry and artistic expression during a pivotal time for the field. The collaboration between these psychiatrists and artists sheds light on their shared exploration of psychoactive substances and visual media in understanding psychopathological states.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In 1938, doctors Eric Guttmann and Walter Maclay, two psychiatrists based at the Maudsley Hospital in London, administered the hallucinogenic drug mescaline to a group of artists, asking the participants to record their experiences visually. These artists included the painter Julian Trevelyan, who was associated with the British surrealist movement at this time. Published as 'Mescaline hallucinations in artists', the research took place at a crucial time for psychiatry, as the discipline was beginning to edge its way into the scientific arena. Newly established, the Maudsley Hospital received Jewish émigrés from Germany to join its ranks. Sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, this group of psychiatrists brought with them an enthusiasm for psychoactive drugs and visual media in the scientific study of psychopathological states. In this case, Guttmann and Maclay enlisted the help of surrealist artists, who were harnessing hallucinogens for their own revolutionary aims. Looking behind the images, particularly how they were produced and their legacy today, tells a story of how these groups cooperated, and how their overlapping ecologies of knowledge and experience coincided in these remarkable inscriptions.