Return to the Real, Part I

This article identifies a recurring discourse in 20th-century Western culture, especially before the 1960s, in which psychedelic drugs are described as revealing a fundamental reality hidden by enculturation. Analyzing several drug accounts, the author argues that this view aligns closely with definitions of primitivist Modernism. This correspondence suggests that drug experiences are more strongly shaped by culture than the usual interpretation of set and setting allows. The author proposes that other cultural set and settings, such as Romanticism, can be identified within Western culture. A companion article discusses implications for drug studies and the concept of set and setting.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Triggered by Aldous Huxley’s 1954 description of mescaline as “cleansing the doors of perception” and Ido Hartogsohn’s consideration of the cultural set and setting regarding drug use, this article attempts to demonstrate and delineate a particular discourse about drug effects that was prevalent in 20th-century Western culture until at least the 1960s. As shown by the analysis of several drug accounts, the main thrust of this discourse was that (psychedelic) drugs (re)reveal a fundamental “reality” that has become hidden by processes of enculturation. This view is then shown to closely correspond to definitions of (primitivist) Modernism. It is argued that this correspondence demonstrates that drug experiences are more strongly informed by culture than the usual interpretation of set and setting allows. It also implies that other “cultural set and settings” can be identified within Western culture, like that of Romanticism. The second article, “Return to the Real, Part II” discusses some of the repercussions of these observations for drug studies in general and the notion of set and setting in particular.