Self-experimentations with psychedelics among mental health professionals: LSD in the former Czechoslovakia.

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Self-Experimentations with Psychedelics Among Mental Health Professionals: LSD in the Former Czechoslovakia a

Petr Winkler PhDr. & Ladislav Csémy PhDr.

b

a

Researcher in the Laboratory of Social Psychiatry, Prague Psychiatric Center Laboratory of Social Psychiatry, Prague, Czech Republic b

Head of the Laboratory of Social Psychiatry, Prague Psychiatric Center Laboratory of Social Psychiatry, Prague, Czech Republic Published online: 11 Mar 2014.

To cite this article: Petr Winkler PhDr. & Ladislav Csémy PhDr. (2014) Self-Experimentations with Psychedelics Among Mental Health Professionals: LSD in the Former Czechoslovakia, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 46:1, 11-19, DOI: 10.1080/02791072.2013.873158 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2013.873158

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Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 46 (1), 11–19, 2014 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0279-1072 print / 2159-9777 online DOI: 10.1080/02791072.2013.873158

Self-Experimentations with Psychedelics Among Mental Health Professionals: LSD in the Former Czechoslovakia Petr Winkler, PhDr.a & Ladislav Csémy, PhDr.b

Abstract — This article enquires into auto-experiments with psychedelics. It is focused on the experiences and current attitudes of mental health professionals who experimented with LSD in the era of legal research of this substance in the former Czechoslovakia. The objective of the follow-up study presented was to assess respondents’ long-term views on their LSD experience(s). A secondary objective was to capture the attitude of the respondents toward the use of psychedelics within the mental health field. A total of 22 individuals participated in structured interviews. None of the respondents reported any long-term negative effect and all of them except two recorded enrichment in the sphere of selfawareness and/or understanding to those with mental disorder(s). Although there were controversies with regard to the ability of preventing possible negative consequences, respondents were supportive towards self-experiments with LSD in mental health sciences. This article is the first systematic examination of the self-experimentation with psychedelics that took place east of the Iron Curtain. Keywords — auto-experimentations, experimentations

follow-up,

INTRODUCTION

LSD,

psychedelics,

self-

Self-experimenting psychologists and psychiatrists have found in psychedelics an extraordinary tool for exploring the psyche and phenomena associated with it. Among the early experimenters with psychoactive compounds in medicine was J. E. Purkynˇe (1787–1869). Known for the discovery of Purkinje cells, Purkinje fibers, Purkinje images, and the Purkinje shift, Purkynˇe engaged in self-experimentation and described the effects of belladonna, nutmeg, opium, and other substances (Hausner & Doležal 1971; Grof 1964; Altman 1987). Another notable pioneer was J. J. Moreau (1804–1884), who experimented on himself with hashish and datura and introduced the concept of “experimental psychosis” (Roubíˇcek 1961). It was with the discovery of mescaline that selfexperiments with psychedelics achieved greater acceptance in psychology and psychiatry. Arthur Heffter isolated

Self-experiments occupy a prominent place in medicine, as they enable an enhanced understanding of the causes and characteristics of certain illnesses and can be the most ethically acceptable manner in which to test a new drug or treatment method (Altman 1987). Early on, self-experiments accompanied scientific research into psychedelics in psychology and psychiatry. a Researcher in the Laboratory of Social Psychiatry, Prague Psychiatric Center Laboratory of Social Psychiatry, Prague, Czech Republic. b Head of the Laboratory of Social Psychiatry, Prague Psychiatric Center Laboratory of Social Psychiatry, Prague, Czech Republic. Please address correspondence to Petr Winkler, Prague Psychiatric Center, Ustavni 91, 181 03 Prague, Czech Republic; phone: +420 266 003 275; fax: +420 266 003 120; email: [email protected]

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Self-Experimentations with Psychedelics

mescaline in 1896 from the peyote cactus, which 10 years prior had been introduced to Western science by Louis Lewin (Hoffer & Osmond 1967). One of the first reports of self-experimentation with mescaline in psychology and psychiatry was presented by Weir Mitchell and Havelock Ellis, who noted a personally valuable experience and emphasized its visual qualities (Stafford 1992; Hoffer & Osmond 1967; Huxley 1954). Another pioneer in selfexperimentation with mescaline in the U.S. was Heinrich Kluver, author of the book Mescal: The “Divine” Plant and its Psychological Effects (1928). During this period, Emil Kraepelin, who introduced the concept of “miniature psychosis” and was influenced by research into experimental psychosis, was studying mescaline at clinics in Marburg and Heidelberg (Roubíˇcek 1961). In the former Czechoslovakia, Svˇetozar Nevole selfexperimented with mescaline to deepen understanding of human perception and creativity (Hausner & Doležal 1971). Nevole described his findings in his books On Four-Dimensional Vision (1947) and On Sensory Illusions (1949), and Milan Hausner, a later psychedelic researcher, considered Nevole’s work a precursor to the work of yet another Czech psychedelic research pioneer, Stanislav Grof (Hausner 1993). Nevole dubbed the mescaline experience as an experience of the “fourth dimension.” Nevole believed that these experiences could enable people to step out of “calcified ways of perceiving” which confined perception to how it was learned during early development via language, education, and culture (Nevole 1947; 1949). He also believed that what is considered to be the “normal human way of perceiving and thinking, is just one possibility out of many potential possibilities” (Nevole 1947, p. 57). Huxley (1954) would describe a similar concept of a “mind at large” in which the brain’s natural function is to filter out the innumerable stimuli one is bombarded with at any moment and select for primarily useful information. Huxley also thought psychedelics were able to attenuate this filter (Huxley 1954). This is not entirely inconsistent with current research that has found the psychedelic psilocybin to reduce activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). It is speculated that the reduction of activity in these areas is consistent with Aldous Huxley’s concept of ordinary consciousness acting as a “reducing valve” that constrains how one perceives incoming stimuli (Carhart-Harris et al. 2012). Self-experimentation, although unintentional, was also central to the discovery of the psychedelic effects of Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). On April 16, 1943, the discoverer of the substance LSD-25, Albert Hofmann, accidentally became intoxicated with the substance and three days later repeated this intoxication deliberately. The first psychiatrist to try LSD on himself at Hoffman’s recommendation was Werner Stoll, who in a 1947 article described his experiences with LSD in detail and identified it as a unique Journal of Psychoactive Drugs

opportunity to experience firsthand the world of psychiatric patients (Hofmann 1980; Grof 1980). In the former Czechoslovakia, self-experiments with LSD were used for a number of purposes. The first was the assumed auto-gnostic, didactic, and heuristic value of an LSD experience for psychologists, psychiatrists, and researchers in these fields. Stanislav Grof articulated the significance of such experiences with LSD and summarized his observations in publications that are well-known internationally and which laid the foundations of a new direction in mental health sciences: Transpersonal Psychology (Grof 1980; 1998; 2007; 2009). Grof also stated that “LSD training sessions are an essential qualification for every LSD therapist” (Grof 1980, p. 259). Another Czech researcher, Jiˇrí Roubíˇcek, also underlined the importance of the LSD experience for psychiatrists and psychologists from a didactic perspective. “One’s own experience with the intoxication, which presents a short psychotic state, has an immense value for professionals in the field of psychiatry. It allows doctors, psychologists, social workers, and nurses to experience first-hand that which they observe daily in the sick they attend to and it allows them to better empathize with their experiences” (Roubíˇcek 1961, p. 81). Roubíˇcek also stated, “The auto-experiment is an expansion, a supplement to professional knowledge, an enhancement and deepening of medical attitudes toward the psychologically ill. And one can say that it truly contributes to a more humane relationship with the one who suffers from psychoses” (Roubíˇcek 1961, p. 81). Roubíˇcek noted that psychiatrists who underwent an experimental psychosis came to the realization that the diagnoses of more severe psychoses were conducted in a way that did not acknowledge the experiences of the patient sufficiently. According to Roubíˇcek, the experience of a temporary psychosis by the psychiatrist allowed for a shift in how psychiatrists understood their patient’s psychosis (Roubíˇcek 1961). From the heuristic point of view, one of the most prominent Czech LSD researchers, Miloš Vojtˇechovský, concluded that “experimentation on oneself is a valuable methodological approach to solving some of the basic questions in experimental psychiatry, which should not be missing from the research strategies of anyone who is intensely involved in experimental psychopharmacology” (p. 307). According to Vojtˇechovský, unlike other healthy volunteers, subjects in the mental health profession were more willing to cooperate, had a greater capacity for introspection, ability to verbalize, and a better understanding of uncommon psychopathological phenomena (Vojtˇechovský 1966). The second reason for self-experimentations has much to do with ethical principles of psychedelic research. It was a requirement of all doctors who would be administering LSD to others to have also undergone an experience of their own. Doctors developed a formal method of educating colleagues who were interested in working with the agent. The requirements for working with LSD were established 12



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at a 1966 meeting of the European Society for Psycholytic Therapy in Amsterdam (Hausner, Grof & Vojtˇechovský 1967). The criteria included a medical license, a specialization in psychiatry, basic psychotherapeutic training, five didactic auto-experiments under the guidance of an experienced psychotherapist, and a total of 30 supervised therapeutic LSD sessions with five patients. Every therapist working with LSD was given a registration number and was listed by the LSD-25 Distribution Committee of the Ministry of Health (Hausner & Doležal 1971; Hausner, Grof & Vojtˇechovský 1967; Hausner 1968b). These ethical issues gain prominence again with the renewed interest in the field of human psychedelic research. With respect to therapeutic clinical research with psychedelics, there have been ongoing studies exploring the therapeutic potential of psilocybin to treat cancer-related end-of-life anxiety (Grob et al. 2011; Heffter Research Institute 2012), smoking cessation (Heffter Research Institute 2012), alcoholism (Heffter Research Institute 2012), and obsessive compulsive disorder (Moreno et al. 2006). LSD has also been used in the treatment of cancer-related end-of-life anxiety (Gasser 2008). Although not a classical psychedelic, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) has been studied for the treatment of chronic non-responsive posttraumatic stress disorder (Mithoefer et al. 2011; Mithoefer et al. 2012) and ketamine has been studied in the treatment of heroin addiction (Krupitsky 2007). In a non-therapeutic context, psilocybin has been explored in the domain of personality change (MacLean, Johnson & Griffiths 2011) and spirituality (Griffiths et al. 2006). Also, the effects of the psychedelic ayahuasca have been studied in healthy volunteers. Some of these studies focused on human pharmacology of ayahuasca (Riba et al. 2003; 2005; 2012). Other studies have examined the personality, psychopathology, life attitudes, and neuropsychological performance of ayahuasca users (Bouso et al. 2012; Barbosa et al. 2009), their health status (Halpern et al. 2008; Barbosa et al. 2012), creativity (Frecska et al. 2012), and spirituality (Trichter, Klimo & Krippner 2009). Given the extent of contemporary human research on psychedelics, it is surprising that there are no references to self-experiments by psychologists and psychiatrists in peer-reviewed journals, or any reference to the training of persons who administer psychedelics to other people. At most, there are references to the meaning of the experience of the person administering psychedelics to others. Metzner (1998), one of the researchers of the 1960s, writes that the “personal experience of the therapist or guide is an essential prerequisite of effective psychedelic psychotherapy” and that “a significant role for the psychedelic experience could be in the training of psychotherapist” (p. 4). Additionally, there is no literature about the individual experiences of psychologists and psychiatrists who administer psychedelics to others; for Journal of Psychoactive Drugs

example, in the influential article by Johnson, Richards, and Griffiths (2008), “Human Hallucinogen Research: Guidelines for Safety.” The authors state that it is “difficult to overemphasize the importance of the interpersonal atmosphere created by study staff in influencing a volunteer’s response to a psychedelic” (p. 610) and recommend experience with other techniques for inducing altered states of consciousness, such as meditation, yoga, and breathing exercises (Johnson, Richards & Griffiths 2008). Similarly, Strassman writes that “experience with psychedelics may affect the nature of the results of research/treatment protocol” (Strassman 1995, p. 134). Strassman speculates that self-experiments with psychedelics, which were originally supported in the U.S., fell from favor in reaction against the leaking of LSD from research labs. He also noted that the European approach of “going first,” in which it is required for the primary researcher to have his or her own experience with the drug in the dose that will be administered to other people as part of the given study, should once again be considered (Strassman 1995). There are also no long-term retrospective assessments of the experiences of those psychologists and psychiatrists who underwent training in the 1950s, ’60s, and early ’70s in contemporary literature. The purpose of this study was to find, contact, and conduct interviews with psychologists and psychiatrists who engaged in self-experimentation with LSD during the era of legal research on this substance in the former Czechoslovakia. The first objective was to determine whether the LSD experience had any long-term negative effects on the respondents as self-reported by participants. The second objective was to determine how respondents would assess the long-term influence of their experience from an auto-gnostic and didactic perspective. The third objective was to elicit the opinions and attitudes of the respondents toward the use of LSD by psychiatrists and psychologists for auto-gnostic and didactic purposes in clinical settings. As part of the study, we used a structured interview, which was piloted prior to the study on three subjects and then modified into its final form. METHODS Respondents Included were individuals who underwent at least one auto-experiment with LSD during the era of legal research between the years 1952–1974 in the former Czechoslovakia. The auto-experiment had to take place voluntarily, in a clinical setting, and under the supervision of a doctor. At the time of the LSD session, the participant had to be either a mental health professional or in training to become one. Due to travel constraints, participants had to reside in the Czech Republic at the time of the study. The articles on the subject of LSD were located by searching two professional journals in the former Czechoslovakia, Activitas Nervosa Superior and 13


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respondent’s answers. All interviews were subsequently transcribed. An indexing system through open coding accordant with the four categories was developed in order to analyze data. This was done in two steps. First, the primary author (PW) and his colleague analyzed data separately; then both analyses were compared and discrepancies were identified and resolved.

TABLE 1 Characteristics of the Respondents Gender Occupation in the time of interview


Retired in the time of interview

Male Female Psychologist Psychiatrist Student Yes No

77% 23% 41% 36% 23% 18% 82%

RESULTS The LSD Experience All participants interviewed (n = 22) underwent a didactic or auto-gnostic LSD experience in the era of legal research in the former Czechoslovakia. All indicated that these experiences took place in clinical settings, although three respondents reported trying LSD in a non-clinical setting as well. Curiosity and interest in the substance was the most frequently provided motivation for why the respondents chose to undergo the LSD experience (n = 16). Nine of the respondents were offered the opportunity to undergo the LSD experience by a co-worker or supervisor. Four of the participants were motivated by their interest in working with the substance therapeutically. Reported doses administered ranged from 25 to 1,000 micrograms of LSD, the most common of which was 100 micrograms. Nine of the respondents stated that they partook in one or two LSD sessions. For nine of the respondents, no preparation or instructions were provided before the experience. Six out of nine of these respondents stated that they independently studied the relevant literature in order to be prepared for the experience. After the session, 15 of 22 interviewees were instructed to speak of their experience in order to facilitate integration of what occurred (see Table 2). Throughout all of the participants’ LSD sessions, a sitter was present who was prepared to intervene if necessary. For the majority of respondents (82%), this was an important condition for them to proceed with the experience securely. Other factors that respondents stated were important for the experience included: the setting where the experience took place, feeling of safety, trust in the sitter/therapist, not being interrupted, awareness that the experience is an experiment, the closeness of other people and accessibility to professionals (doctors, nurses, and therapists), the absence of stress, and good mental health.

Czechoslovak Psychiatry. Researchers then attempted to contact all of the authors of articles on both LSD psychotherapy and LSD self-experimentation, as it was assumed that these mental health professionals had also undergone a self-experiment with LSD. The professionals contacted were also asked for references to other potential respondents. In this manner, researchers identified and contacted 29 eligible participants. One refused to be interviewed, five were unavailable due to time constraints, and one was unavailable as he was recovering from surgery. A total of 22 respondents participated in the interview; 10 psychologists, 11 psychiatrists, and one psychotherapist (five women and 17 men). All underwent at least one auto-experiment with LSD. Many of these individuals currently hold professorial positions at Czech universities; only four had retired at the time this study took place. The age range of the participants was between 59 and 89 years (see Table 1). Interview The interviews were conducted by the first author and his colleague in January 2008. Respondents were asked to select the location of the interview according to their own preference. Most often it took place at respondents’ workplace (59%); less frequently in their home (32%) or in a café (9%). An approach based on grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin 1998) permitted the interview to flow naturally, yet allowing the researchers to ask detailed questions when appropriate. The interview consisted of 30 open-ended questions, which were divided into four categories. The first category consisted of questions pertaining to where and under what conditions the respondent underwent the LSD experience. The second category pertained to the influence of the LSD experience on the respondent. The third category focused on the respondent’s opinion toward the professional and lay use of LSD. In the fourth category, respondents were given a series of quotes and asked to provide a reaction. These quotes were used to elicit the attitudes of the respondents toward the role of psychedelics in a broader social context. The structured interviews lasted between 45 and 60 minutes, depending on the length of Journal of Psychoactive Drugs

Respondents’ Evaluation of Long-Term Effects of LSD Experience(s) No respondent reported any long-term negative effect of his or her auto-experiment(s). Twenty of 22 respondents agreed that the LSD experience had a long-term positive effect on them, either in the sphere of self-awareness, or in the didactic sphere (awareness of the world of the mentally ill patient), or in both. The quality of the benefit to selfawareness as mediated by an LSD experience is expressed by the following quotes: 14


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TABLE 2 Characteristics of the Respondents’ LSD Experiences

Dose of LSD 100–1000 100–400 300

Number of Sessions 10 10 6

4

100+

1

5

100+

1

6

100

2

7

100

1

8 9 10 11 12

50 300 100–400 100 100–700

2 N/A N/A 3 or 4 Dozens

13 14

200 100+

1 N/A

15 16 17 18

100–900 50−100 100–200 150

7 2 5 or 6 1

19 20

100 100

3 4

21 22

25 100

3 1


Respondent 1 2 3

Motivation Independent curiosity/interest Independent curiosity/interest Independent curiosity/interest + Offered by professor or colleague Independent curiosity/interest + Offered by professor or colleague Independent curiosity/interest + Offered by professor or colleague Independent curiosity/interest + Offered by professor or colleague Independent curiosity/interest + Offered by professor or colleague To be able to work with LSD Independent curiosity/interest To be able to work with LSD Independent curiosity/interest Independent curiosity/interest + Offered by professor or colleague To be able to work with LSD Independent curiosity/interest + Offered by professor or colleague Independent curiosity/interest Offered by professor or colleague Offered by professor or colleague Independent curiosity/interest + Offered by professor or colleague To be able to work with LSD Independent curiosity/interest + Offered by professor or colleague Independent curiosity/interest Independent curiosity/interest

It’s a kind of enrichment in the sense that we become aware of how much we have in our psyche. That which we know and remember is just a small part of it. There’s a lot of emotion, experience, memory that isn’t accessible. That is how it is enriching. I wish for others to be able to have this experience as well. But it is for those who are healthier, because when pathology was present . . . it can be bad, but if a person is well, it should be possible [for a person to have this experience] (R1).


Instructions Preceding the Experience Yes Yes No

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes No Yes N/A Yes

Yes No

No Yes No N/A

Yes Yes

Yes No

I believe so, that a person realized that there are other dimensions than those that are ordinary—dimensions that are important to the individual and society more broadly. This value orientation, this is where I see the benefits of hallucinogens, they allow for a person to see the world a little differently. Not in the sense that it would be somehow original, in mysticism these things are well-known. That is what I think, it allows for a change in value orientation, an opportunity for change from a consumer orientation to a freer one (R2).

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One of the respondents was unable to judge whether the experience had any positive effect. One respondent stated that he didn’t register any positive long-term benefits to his experience. Out of the 22 interviewed, 19 responded that the experience allowed them to broaden and deepen their self-understanding. A majority of respondents (90%) also stated that the experience allowed them to better understand people with mental illness. The quality of the benefit to such an understanding as mediated by an LSD experience is expressed by the following:

I think it can help a person on his way, but he would have to undertake the journey himself. I am reminded of a saying, it can be a good lantern on your journey, but it’s not the path itself (R8).

DISCUSSION Several limitations should be mentioned. The followup covered only a portion of those who were involved in research with psychedelics over 40 years ago. Many of those involved in this research have passed away, some have relocated, and others have retired, making it difficult for them to be contacted. Another limitation is the reliance on self-reported reflections on an event that occurred 40 or more years ago. It is difficult for the respondent to recall distant events precisely, which can lead to cognitive biases. Memory is selective and thus bias cannot be avoided, even in mental health professionals who are expected to have greater self-reflection. However, the fact that the respondents were able and willing to speak about their experience suggests that these experiences were significant. The results of our study indicate that self-experiments were important to the interviewed psychologists and psychiatrists for several reasons. They serve primarily for the training of professionals who administer or will administer psychedelic substances to other people as part of nowresumed experimental activities. Self-experiments would also appear to be valuable for the training of professionals who care for the mentally ill. Furthermore, selfexperimenters also report a certain heuristic value to experiences with psychedelics, and last, it has been shown that experiences with psychedelics have a significant potential for enhancing self-awareness and allowing for personal growth in healthy people, which is often the reason why they experiment with them (Móró et al. 2011). This exemplifies an instrumental approach to psychoactive drug use as proposed by Müller and Schumann (2011). We therefore conclude that self-experiments with psychedelics by mental health specialists should be subject to further careful analysis. There are several important implications here. First, psychedelics’ potential for exploring human psyche seems to be very important. Second, the LSD sessions required immense preparation, both psychologically and organizationally. Third, there is uncertainty amongst the professionals we interviewed as to whether harm can be completely avoided, even with preparation. It must be kept in mind that respondents of this study experimented with psychedelics in an era when knowledge related to the safety of psychedelic use was limited. However, a metaanalysis completed by Malleson (1971) reported a low rate of adverse reaction in nearly 49,500 LSD sessions that were conducted in the United Kingdom between the mid-1950s to 1971. Further, Johnson, Richards, and Griffiths (2008) have outlined safeguards to minimize the risks associated


You get to experience hallucinatory states, intense anxiety, paranoia . . . then (a person) knows what is going on in relation to his patients, one is not afraid of it, is accommodating, when for others they (the patients) may be weird, crazy, dangerous . . . (R2). These completely bizarre experiences . . . it can be very difficult for the patient to describe . . . no matter how motivated the patient is to describe what they’re experiencing to the therapist . . . This has stuck with me to this day. Lately, I’ve been focusing on the subject of language, and I see how there are phenomena for which we do not have words for, and the LSD experience allowed me to understand them (R7).

Respondents’ Attitudes Toward the Use of LSD in the Mental Health Field Although respondents were supportive towards the use of LSD for didactic and auto-gnostic purposes in the mental health field (18 were supportive, four had no strong opinion; all would accept it under specific conditions), it is important to highlight that respondents were very cautious in this regard. There was a lack of agreement amongst respondents as to whether it is possible to completely eliminate the potential harm to a person during the LSD experience, even when conducting a diligent psychological examination beforehand, controlling conditions in the setting, and providing care during and after the experience. This is illustrated in the following: LSD is a bomb that can’t be underestimated. There are people who paid a price, they decompensated, they became fixated on it (LSD), or on those who worked with it, that’s a problem . . . . If it were to be studied again, for me to agree [with it being studied again], it would have to be under different conditions (R15). I would be very supportive [of LSD research], if the situation could be reversed . . . if it could be returned to the hands of doctors and researchers or if it was used in the psychotherapy of neurotic disorders . . . or those dependent on alcohol, who would benefit from a change in perspective and be freed from alcoholism . . . or for patients with cancer who are facing death, or for those who work with these patients . . . (R1).

Respondents expressed their concern not to overestimate the significance of the LSD experience, as it happened in the past. As one respondent stated: Journal of Psychoactive Drugs

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with psychedelic research in humans. The authors cite numerous methods, such as establishing trust with session monitors before the drug session, careful preparation of the person undergoing the experience, a safe and supportive physical environment, and having two study monitors present during the session. This article has helped set guidelines to ensure clinical safety in modern psychedelic research. On the other hand, in contemporary times there is a significant aversion to reporting auto-gnostically and didactically oriented sessions with psychedelics carried out by psychologists and psychiatrists. Since the beginning of the 1990s until today, there has not been any such an article published in peer-reviewed journals, and this may impede further development of guidelines for safety of human psychedelic research. Lastly, in the past there was a tendency to mislead or oversimplify claims in adoration of psychedelics and the overvaluation of their significance, which acquired an almost agitating quality and may have contributed to the mass misuse of LSD and other psychedelics. We consider it appropriate to avoid such emphatic claims. This research may have implication for future psychedelic studies. An FDA-approved research protocol pertaining to MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder includes the permission for therapists to be given MDMA as part of their training (MAPS 2009). An avenue for future research, as clinical trials into MDMA and related substances expand, would be to conduct a controlled study in which a group of psychedelicexperienced and psychedelic-inexperienced therapists are compared across patient treatment outcome. After all, it was around 1965 when Herb Kleber, eminent addictions psychiatrist and now former Deputy Director for Demand Reduction at the Office of National Drug Control Policy in the White House, began a study to evaluate whether LSD therapy patients showed better outcomes when the therapist had an experience previously. However, the study was never completed due to Sandoz recalling the LSD as it began to spread as a street drug and Kleber no longer wanting to be associated with it (White 2013). Further clinical research focused on introspection, mind exploration, and personal growth facilitated by psychedelic experience may be justifiable, especially for

mental health professionals. More consideration should be given to the European tradition nicknamed “going first”; that is, that anyone who administers psychedelics to another should have his or her own moderate experience with them. CONCLUSIONS From the discovery of LSD to its placement on the list of controlled substances in the early 1970s, numerous selfexperiments were carried out throughout the world, which psychologists and psychiatrists underwent for auto-gnostic and didactic purposes. In the former Czechoslovakia, a large number of experiments were conducted with mental health professionals, for whom the experience was an opportunity to learn more about oneself, non-ordinary psychological states, and the states of those who are mentally ill. The responses of these mental health professionals suggest that the experience of temporary, chemically induced changes in one’s mind can bring opportunities for introspection, and the understanding of oneself and others. The current study found mental health professionals who underwent self-experimentation with LSD in a legal context, in clinical settings, and viewed their autoexperiments as valuable didactic and auto-gnostic tools. These participants reported enrichment to both their personal and professional lives as a result of their experience(s). Some examples included a deeper understanding of oneself, personal growth and maturation, and use as a tool to understand the subjective experience of the psychologically ill. Although none of the respondents reported any long-term negative outcomes from their experimentation, respondents reported that using LSD, even in clinical settings, must be meticulously prepared and supervised. However, all respondents in the current study would, under specific conditions, accept accessibility to LSD for didactic and auto-gnostic purpose. FUNDING This study was supported by MH CZ - DRO (PCP, 00023752).

REFERENCES Altman, L.K. 1987. Who Goes First? The Story of Self-Experimentation in Medicine. New York: Random House. Barbosa, P.C.; Cazorlam, I.M.; Giglio, J.S. & Strassman, R. 2009. A six-month prospective evaluation of personality traits, psychiatric symptoms and quality of life in ayahuasca-naïve subjects. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 41 (3): 205–12. Barbosa, P.C.; Mizumoto, S.; Bogenschutz, M.P. & Strassman, R.J. 2012. Health status of ayahuasca users. Drug Testing and Analysis 4 (7–8): 601–9.


Bouso, J.C.; González, D.; Fondevila, S.; Cutchet, M.; Fernández, X.; Barbosa, P.C.; Alcázar-Córcoles, M.Á.; Araújo, W.S.; Barbanoj, M.J.; Fábregas, J.M. & Riba, J. 2012. Personality, psychopathology, life attitudes and neuropsychological performance among ritual users of Ayahuasca: A longitudinal study. PLoS One 7 (8): e42421. Carhart-Harris, R.L.; Erritzoe, D.; Williams, T.; Stone, J.M.; Reed, L.J.; Colasanti, A.; Tyacke, R.J.; Leech, R.; Malizia, A.L.; Murphy, K.; Hobden, P.; Evans, J.; Feilding, A.; Wise, R.G. & Nutt, D.J. 2012.

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