Acid Hype

LSD entered the American mainstream not through counterculture but via respectable magazines like Time and Life, which introduced the drug to a postwar audience unaccustomed to descriptions of drug use. Early media coverage glorified LSD's use in treating mental illness and as a mystical gateway to the unconscious, shaping its status as a legitimate tool. This attention produced an intricate relationship between drugs and media that defined pop culture. Over time, the breathless coverage gave way to a moral panic, transforming the refined seeker of truths into an acid casualty beyond polite society.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Now synonymous with Sixties counterculture, LSD actually entered the American consciousness via the mainstream. Time and Life, messengers of American respectability, trumpeted its grand arrival in a postwar landscape scoured of alluring descriptions of drug use while lesser outlets piggybacked on their coverage with stories by turns sensationalized and glowing. This book offers the untold tale of LSD's wild journey from Brylcreem and Ivory soap to incense and peppermints. As the book shows, the early attention lavished on the drug by the news media glorified its use in treatments for mental illness but also its status as a mystical—yet legitimate—gateway to exploring the unconscious mind. The book's history takes readers to the center of how popular media hyped psychedelic drugs in a constantly shifting legal and social environment, producing an intricate relationship between drugs and media experience that came to define contemporary pop culture. It also traces how the breathless coverage of LSD gave way to a textbook moral panic, transforming yesterday's refined seeker of truths into an acid casualty splayed out beyond the fringe of polite society.