Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie
June 1, 2005
Erika Dyck
88 citations
LSD research in psychiatry is often linked to CIA-funded experiments, but in Saskatchewan, psychiatrists Humphry Osmond and Abram Hoffer conducted widespread therapeutic trials after World War II. Initially drawn to LSD for its ability to produce a "model psychosis," they used it to hypothesize a biochemical basis for schizophrenia. Drawing on hospital records, interviews, and private papers, this historical analysis shows these trials were a fruitful branch of psychiatric research alongside early psychopharmacological agents like chlorpromazine and imipramine. The experiments ultimately failed for two reasons: the shift toward randomized controlled trials, which the Saskatchewan researchers did not adopt, and the criminalization of LSD due to its association with counterculture movements.
Social History of Medicine
July 17, 2006
Erika Dyck
87 citations
Between 1950 and 1970, psychiatrists in Canada and the United States administered LSD to alcoholics, aiming to trigger a profound psychological crisis that would disrupt drinking patterns. Early reports claimed high success rates, but methodological flaws and the drug's countercultural associations eroded medical support. The practice reflected broader tensions between biomedical research, social values, and the regulation of psychedelics.
Frontiers in Psychiatry
August 2, 2021
Nicolas Langlitz, Erika Dyck, Milan Scheidegger et al.
35 citations
Psychedelics may act as non-specific amplifiers that help people reconnect with their values, or they might specifically promote liberal and anti-authoritarian views, as recent studies suggest. The return of psychedelics from counterculture to mainstream science has diversified their users and uses. This article argues for a moral psychopharmacology that brings pharmacological and neuroscientific research into conversation with historical and anthropological scholarship on the full range of moral and political views linked to psychedelic use. The work highlights the cultural plasticity of drug action and has implications for designing psychedelic therapies, while also questioning whether other psychoactive drugs have similarly rich moral and political dimensions.
The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs
August 20, 2020
Erika Dyck, Chris Elcock
28 citations
The concept of a 'bad trip' on psychedelics was used strategically by public health officials and regulators in the 1960s to justify prohibition, emphasizing violent and fearful outbursts as chemical reactions causing harm. However, psychedelic therapists in the 1950s and 1960s offered an alternative interpretation, viewing fear and trauma confrontation as beneficial in psychotherapy. By comparing cases from North American psychedelic clinics with news, personal testimonies, and regulatory outcomes in the United States, the article argues that the specter of the bad trip galvanized public support for prohibition. This removed psychedelics from active research, moving psychotherapy away from addressing fear and trauma through confrontation.
Nature medicine
June 3, 2025
Chloé Pronovost-Morgan, Kyle T. Greenway, Leor Roseman et al.
26 citations
A Delphi consensus study with 89 experts from 17 countries identified 30 extra-pharmacological variables that are important or very important for reporting the setting in psychedelic clinical trials. These variables, forming the ReSPCT guidelines, cover physical environment, dosing session procedure, therapeutic framework and protocol, and subjective experiences. The findings reveal significant ambiguities in current conceptualizations of set and setting. The guidelines provide a new standard for designing and documenting contextual factors in psychedelic research.
Canadian Medical Association Journal
August 4, 2015
Erika Dyck
25 citations
Psychedelics lost medical acceptance about 50 years ago, but recent research indicates growing optimism among scientists for their therapeutic revival. More than six decades ago, Albert Hofmann at Sandoz Pharmaceutical Laboratories in Switzerland first synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).
History of psychology
August 1, 2018
Erika Dyck, Patrick Farrell
21 citations
In the 1950s, as psychiatry turned toward psychopharmacology, Canadian researchers in an isolated prairie mental hospital pioneered a unique blend of psychotherapy and psychedelic substances like mescaline and LSD. The correspondence between psychiatrist Humphry Osmond and writer Aldous Huxley reveals how they developed their psychedelic approach to therapy, combining interests in psychoactive substances, perception, and empathy. Working far from major research centers, Osmond sought collaborators outside psychiatry, fostering an innovative regional approach that blended traditions.
Med Humanit
June 23, 2019
Lucas Richert, Erika Dyck
17 citations
LSD research and use in American mental health during the 1970s was far from settled, with researchers continuing to push regulatory limits and attempt to transform mental healthcare. This article examines connections between LSD, mental health, and the broader cultural setting, avoiding simple narratives of rise or decline. LSD bridged biomedical concepts of health and cure with individuals' subjective needs, bringing together humanities, arts, social sciences, health policy, medical education, patient experience, and the public, while also dividing opinion. Drawing on archival materials, medical literature, and popular culture, the work offers a fresh approach to understanding cultural and countercultural-based healthcare in that era.
Journal of psychoactive drugs
January 1, 2019
Erika Dyck
16 citations
Before palliative care existed as a medical specialty, dying was often neglected by modern medicine. In the 1950s, researchers exploring LSD and mescaline began to see dying care as a potential application for psychedelics, particularly for easing anxiety associated with death. These early discussions were cut short when psychedelics were criminalized. The article examines those historical conversations and considers how they might inform current, more developed discussions about using psychedelics in palliative care.
Journal of Canadian Studies
November 1, 2012
Erika Dyck, Tolly Bradford
11 citations
In October 1956, a peyote ceremony organized by the Native American Church took place at the Red Pheasant reserve in Saskatchewan, involving the psychedelic cactus peyote. By the 1950s, peyotism sparked debates about spirituality, medicine, and Native-newcomer relations. The federal government, embracing multiculturalism, tolerated the ceremony as a legitimate Indigenous ritual, while local authorities sought to criminalize it as abusive and dangerous. The essay examines how scientists, journalists, Native participants, police, and officials interpreted peyotism, suggesting that the ceremony tested the limits of the federal government's approach to treating Aboriginal Canadians as immigrants.
Health & place
September 1, 2009
Erika Dyck
8 citations
The word 'psychedelic' entered English in 1957 from an asylum superintendent in a Saskatchewan mental hospital. During the 1950s, researchers in this isolated Canadian province engaged in political and psychiatric reforms that drew international attention. This article examines how location influenced the development of a medical theory that challenged prevailing ideas about mental illness and addiction. Drawing on history, political science, sociology, and geography, the case study explores the historical meanings of region and place, combining older political definitions of region with cultural geography concepts to analyze psychedelic research after World War II.
Journal of Canadian Studies
August 1, 2007
Erika Dyck
6 citations
The term 'psychedelic' was first published by Dr. Humphry Osmond in 1957, following clinical investigations with LSD in Saskatchewan during the 1950s. After World War Two, Saskatchewan became a destination for medical and psychiatric researchers who wanted to challenge disciplinary boundaries and examine the relationship between medicine and the state. The province's post-war political culture made it an intellectual sanctuary for medical experimentation that was considered too radical elsewhere. This essay argues that the social, cultural, and political environment in post-war Saskatchewan played a significant role in attracting researchers and supporting LSD research.
Front Psychol
August 21, 2024
Tehseen Noorani, Oliver Davis, Alex Dymock et al.
5 citations
The article argues that the humanities and social sciences are essential for understanding psychedelic experiences, because these experiences are shaped by context, culture, and personal history—factors often overlooked by biomedical research. It introduces the concept of "anthropotechnics" to analyze how cultural practices and settings influence the outcomes of psychedelic use. The authors contend that integrating humanistic perspectives can provide a more complete picture of how set and setting affect psychedelic experiences, moving beyond purely neurobiological explanations.
Soc Hist Med
December 8, 2022
Stephen Lett, Erika Dyck
5 citations
Psychedelic-assisted therapy relies not only on the drug itself but also on the subject's mindset and the session environment, known as 'set and setting'. Early therapeutic sessions deliberately incorporated or avoided religious sounds and music to foster spiritual epiphanies during peak experiences. Contemporary practices largely repeat these past approaches, relying on aesthetic assumptions that may limit the therapy's broader applicability.
South Atlantic Quarterly
April 1, 2025
Erika Dyck
2 citations
This historical survey traces the long human engagement with substances, plants, and fungi later classified as psychedelics, drawing on archaeological, anthropological, botanical, and clinical evidence. It emphasizes the diverse ways societies have made sense of mind-altering experiences, from early ceremonial and clinical uses to the dramatic shift brought by the war on drugs in the late twentieth century, which recast psychedelic exploration and its seekers in a negative light.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
August 8, 2024
Erika Dyck, James Dixon
2 citations
Harm reduction, formally recognized in the 1980s during the HIV/AIDS crisis, has earlier roots in psychedelic use. In the 1950s and 1960s, early clinical psychedelic researchers incorporated people-first risk management approaches. During the war on drugs, community-based organizations at music festivals provided harm reduction for those using psychedelics. The Native American Church exemplifies Indigenous traditions that combine psychedelic substances with spirituality and healing in community settings to promote wellness. The authors argue that psychedelic risk management has deep historical roots in biomedical, cultural, and Indigenous communities, offering lessons for sustainable strategies going forward.
The Biochemist
April 1, 2007
Erika Dyck
2 citations
In April 1943, Swiss biochemist Albert Hofmann ingested a small amount of a newly synthesized drug, LSD, and experienced dizziness, visual disturbances, and a strong urge to laugh. During his bicycle ride home, he perceived the familiar road as a surreal scene reminiscent of a Salvador Dalí painting and a roller coaster. Although a doctor found him physically healthy, Hofmann was mentally distressed. This account describes the first intentional human experience with LSD, highlighting its profound psychological effects.
Open Access Government
July 10, 2023
Erika Dyck
1 citation
Erika Dyck argues that how people learn about psychedelics today matters, based on the histories of these drugs and their use in clinical medicine. Psychedelic drugs have a long and colorful history that has influenced attitudes across academia, culture, and medicine since before the 1950s, but their history has been marked by polarizing opinions, with negative cultural attitudes toward non-medical drug use and consciousness-altering substances in medicine. More recent public conversations feature enthusiastic claims about benefits that often sever the current culture of psychedelics from the past, potentially distancing them from conservative mainstream institutions like universities, food and drug administrations, and healthcare systems.
Open Access Government
January 22, 2024
Erika Dyck
Erika Dyck examines whether the renewed interest in psychedelics will create another generational divide, as occurred in the 20th century. She notes that psychedelics' past—including unethical research and associations with violence—continues to shape their present. Psychedelics have been blamed for turning a generation against authority and postwar values. Dyck argues that psychedelics are not the problem but may be a symptom of deeper social tensions.
Journal of Military Veteran and Family Health
December 1, 2023
Erika Dyck, Gregory P. Marchildon
The historical link between psychedelic drugs and the military is often seen as drug misuse or as contributing to anti-war sentiment. However, recent clinical evidence suggests these cultural associations may obscure the potential of psychedelic treatments for disorders common among military personnel, such as posttraumatic stress disorder. This article provides a historical overview of psychedelics and their association with anti-war activism, alongside the clinical recognition of mental disorders in the military, which has led to a reimagining of the relationship between psychedelics and mental illness within the military.
Open Access Government
April 9, 2024
Erika Dyck
France has joined the global revival of psychedelic research. In February 2024, a team at Le Grau-du-Roi Hospital began a clinical trial testing psilocybin for people with alcohol use disorder and depressive symptoms—the first such trial in France in 58 years. The author, historian Erika Dyck, notes that overturning decades of prohibition and regulatory barriers is a significant challenge, even as interest in psychedelic medicine expands worldwide.
Open Access Government
April 12, 2023
Erika Dyck
Professor Erika Dyck argues that psychedelic therapies, whether in ceremonial or clinical settings, are being promoted as life-changing for their ability to transform an individual's perspective. With the WHO reporting that 1 in 5 people globally lives with mental illness, a 'psychedelic renaissance' has emerged, offering potential treatments that could improve individual lives and transform mental health diagnosis and treatment. Initiatives to legalize, decriminalize, or regulate psychedelics are taking various legal forms, with notable successes in treating alcoholism and trauma-based disorders. Professor Dyck recommends deeper exploration of these therapies.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology
February 28, 2020
Erika Dyck, Emmanuel Delille
In the 1970s, alternative therapies on the American West Coast, especially in California, embraced spiritual and non-biological approaches that conflicted with Western biomedicine, placing them in a category of new age medicine. These therapies arose from a Cold War context of affluence, dissatisfaction, and cultural anxiety. The article examines four such therapies—psychedelics, primal scream, nude therapy, and sociodrama—arguing that beyond their differences and flirtations with orthodox medicine, they reveal tensions with psychoanalysis and attempts to redefine the therapist-patient relationship. Though none endured in original form, revisiting this history offers insight into changes in psychotherapy in the latter 20th century and the cultural tensions that fueled subsequent therapeutic shifts.