Some science behind the scenes
LSD-25 suitability
LSD should only be used by certain people – this is the clinical viewpoint of a large number of doctors. Let me quote Dr Robert Davidson as being representative of the overall opinion, here he gives his opinion on who might benefit from LSD:
Dr Robert S Davidson - [From Exploring Inner Space – Jane Dunlap]
The increased awareness that LSD bestows could be especially valuable to the following people:
- the non-neurotic fairly well integrated persons who are not troubled enough to seek professional psychotherapy
- people who aware of unpleasant feelings of alienation from nature and a growing dissatisfaction with our cultural goal of accumulating money and possessions
- those who are discontented with mass produced ideals and materialistic values
- those who wish to be in touch with their deepest emotions instead of being constantly enmeshed in the web of abstractions spun by their own calculating intellects
- and those who wish they could stop doing something continually so that they might have the opportunity to be their own individual selves
Now we can contrast this with his opinion on who is unsuited to having LSD. Given the number of people who even now think LSD should be used in psychotherapy, his opinions may come as a surprise
Dr Robert S Davidson - From Exploring Inner Space – Jane Dunlap
Although a number of experimenters have found LSD to be of value in psychotherapy, there are several contraindications for the drug. Therefore subjects who volunteer to take it should be screened carefully for example:
- people who have had a mental illness might experience a temporary reactivation of the illness
- since any subject who has been given LSD is temporarily more likely to put his impulses into action, persons who have suicidal tendencies need to be watched carefully if they are allowed to take the drug
- LSD is not for anyone who would use it as an aid to psychological withdrawal from life's problems
A large number of doctors also seem to agree that on no account should schizophrenics or those with mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder take the drug or those with a history of schizophrenia in the family.
LSD appears to be able to trigger these conditions.