Artificial Psychoses Produced by Mescaline
Journal of Mental Science May 1, 1936 E. Guttmann 67 citations
Progress in general medicine often comes from clinical observation or controlled experiments, but psychiatry has limited opportunities for the latter. One available method is the use of intoxicating drugs to study psychological changes, an approach first emphasized by Kraepelin. Many observers have tested drugs like alcohol, caffeine, hyoscine, and cocaine on various psychic faculties, collecting copious data. However, the value of these observations for understanding the psycho-pathology of major psychoses is limited, because producing a true psychosis picture typically requires dangerous or chronic intoxication levels.