Humphry Osmond

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Humphry Fortescue Osmond (born July 1, 1917 in Surrey , † February 6, 2004 in Appleton ) was a British psychiatrist . He researched the effects of hallucinogenic drugs on the human psyche and helped discover adrenochrome . He was also interested in the psychological aspects within a social environment and their influence on the well-being and recovery of patients in psychiatric clinics.

Osmond became best known through the introduction of the term psychedelic (German: psychedelic ) in psychiatry.

Life

Osmond attended Haileybury School in Hertfordshire . As a young man he studied medicine at Guy's Hospital Medical School at King's College London . During the Second World War he finished his training as a psychiatrist and served as a military doctor with the rank of lieutenant in the Navy. After the war he worked at St George's University in London . There he began his studies in the pharmaceutical treatment of mental illnesses.

Research using hallucinogens

In London, Osmond and his colleague John Smythies discovered that the symptoms of schizophrenia were similar to those of hallucinogenic drugs. They made it their business to examine these similarities more closely and to research whether there was a connection. In doing so, they found similarities in the molecular structure of adrenaline and mescaline . In 1952 Osmond formulated the thesis that biochemical substances could possibly be responsible for schizophrenia.

Osmond then went to Saskatchewan in Canada and worked there at the Weyburn Mental Hospital. There he found optimal conditions that enabled him to continue his work. Together with Abram Hoffer, Osmond researched the treatment of alcoholism with the help of LSD in 1953 .

In the same year, the writer Aldous Huxley contacted Osmond. Huxley, in his 1939 novel Brave New World, described a form of society in which drugs were used as a means of social control. He was interested in the work of Osmond and offered himself to him as a test subject. Osmond was initially not enthusiastic about this and explained:

"I didn't like the opportunity, however remote, of being the man who drove Aldous Huxley insane."

- Humphry Osmond

Ultimately, Osmond gave in to Huxley's request. In May 1953, Huxley first took mescaline at his home in Hollywood Hills, California under controlled conditions monitored by Osmond. Huxley described his experience in his two essays The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell .

In 1954, Osmond and Smythies, together with Abram Hoffer, published the adrenochrome hypothesis. According to this, adrenochrome is an endogenous substance that, in certain quantities, can lead to hallucinations. This is believed to be the cause of schizophrenia.

Psychedelic

The psychiatrist Paul Hoch discovered like Osmond in his research that LSD was a drug whose effects resembled psychotic reactions. He invented the term psychotomimetic , which means something like imitating a psychosis, to describe the effects of LSD . Osmond's work had changed through contact with Huxley. He thought it possible that LSD could induce a religious experience in people. This would make the drug more than just a means that could imitate a psychological crisis. Osmond considered the term psychotomimetic henceforth to be too narrow and negatively burdened by the reference to the root word “psycho”. From an exchange of letters with Aldous Huxley, he finally developed the term psychedelic .

Services

His biochemical work at the molecular level made him one of the pioneers in psychiatric research in this area.

During his research with hallucinogenic drugs, Osmond replaced the previously used term psychotomimetic with psychedelic . This term not only established itself in psychiatry, but was also used in a cultural context.

Works

Books

  • How to Cope With Illness (1979)
  • How to Live With Schizophrenia (1974)
  • Models of madness, models of medicine (1974)
  • Understanding Understanding (1973)
  • Psychedelics: The Uses and Implications of Hallucinogenic Drugs (editor, 1971)
  • The Hallucinogens (1967)

items

  • Excerpt from Psychedelics (1971)
  • Some problems in the use of LSD 25 in the treatment of alcoholism (1967)
  • A comment on some uses of psychotomimetics in psychiatry (1967)
  • What is schizophrenia? (1966)
  • Commentary on "Meaning and the Mind Drugs" (1965)
  • Peyote Night (1961)
  • A Review of the Clinical Effects of Psychotomimetic Agents [excerpt] (1957)
  • Research on schizophrenia (1956)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ DE Nichols: Hallucinogens. In: Pharmacology & Therapeutics , Issue 101, 2004, p. 163.
  2. ^ Martin A. Lee & Bruce Shlain: Acid Dreams, The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond . Grove Press, New York 1985, p. 46. ISBN 0-8021-3062-3
personal data
SURNAME Osmond, Humphry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Osmond, Humphry Fortescue
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British psychiatrist
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Surrey
DATE OF DEATH February 6, 2004
Place of death Appleton, Wisconsin