1961 - Royal Medico-Psychological Association - Hallucinogenic Drugs and their Psychotherapeutic Use.pdf - Psychedelic Therapy - Eroza800

Proceedings of the

Royal Medico-Psychological Association

HALLUCINOGENI

DRUG

AND THEIR

PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC

Edited

RICHARD CROCKET, R. A. SANDISON

AND

ALEXANDER WALK

LONDON

H. K. LEWIS & Co. Ltd.

HALLUCINOGENIC DRUGS

AND

THEIR PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC USE

THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE QUARTERLY MEETING

OF THE

ROYAL MEDICO-PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

IN LONDON

FEBRUARY 1961

Joint Editors:

RICHARD CROCKET, R. A. SANDISON,

AND ALEXANDER WALK

First of

arts

Without

thy

light

All the

rest

Would

sink in

night

FOUNDED

1844

MEDICA

TYPOGRAPHIA

LONDON

First Published 1963

ROYAL MEDICO-PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

1963

This book is copyright

It may not be reproduced by any means,

in whole or in part, without permission.

Applications with regard to copyright

should be addressed to the publishers

INTRODUCTION

ONE of the problems facing the organisers of a psychiatric conference is that the

theme is seldom sufficiently compact to permit the printed proceedings being

read easily and smoothly. The theme of the conference which is reported in this

monograph attracted a large number of speakers from several disciplines, and al-

though these speakers confined themselves to the general topic of the hallucino-

genic drugs the discussion ranged to and fro over a wide area of investigation and

knowledge. The editors therefore offer this brief introduction which may serve to

help the reader to understand the ways in which the conference represented an

advance in knowledge in a field of psychiatry which is relatively new and only

The general properties of the older hallucinogenic drugs have been known

for centuries, but medical interest in them is less than a hundred years old. It is

less than twenty years since the hallucinogenic action of one of the more potent

synthetic compounds, LSD, was discovered by Hofmann. Some ten years later,

LSD was first used in an exploratory manner in the field of psychotherapy, on

the grounds that the subjective experiences of those normal subjects who had

volunteered to take LSD were similar in content to the unconscious material

produced by patients during analytical work. Early investigators in the realm of

psychotherapy found that regression to childhood occurred under LSD, with

recovery of lost or repressed memories of childhood. Following early reports of

success in psychotherapy in 1953 and 1954 in England, the U. S. A. and Germany,

a number of investigators started using LSD in an attempt to effect a cure in in-

tractable neurosis and to shorten the treatment time in others. In 1955 the clinical

application of LSD had made sufficient progress for the subject to find a place in

the programme of the Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association

held in that year in Atlantic City. During the next four years individual papers

and communications to meetings and conferences came from clinicians and

other research workers from several European countries, and from Canada, the

United States and South America, whilst at the same time interest in LSD as a

possible therapeutic tool was becoming world-wide. By 1959 the prospect that

the hallucinogenic drugs were to have a profound influence in modifying existing

methods of psychotherapy found expression in a three day Macy Foundation

Conference on "The Use of LSD in Psychotherapy". The success of this en-

deavour encouraged workers in Europe to meet and to arrange their own dis-

cussions. The result was a small European symposium held at Göttingen in 1960,

followed by the more ambitious R. M. P. A. Conference in February 1961 which

forms the material of this monograph.

Research into the properties and potentialities of LSD and related com-

pounds has been intense since 1943, and consequently its application has

attracted the attention of neurophysiologists, pharmacologists, psychologists

and other research workers as well as of clinical psychiatrists. The findings in

INTRODUCTION

It was therefore the intention and hope of the organizers of the 1961

Conference in London that investigators from fields other than the clinical and

psychotherapeutic ones would be able to assist in interpreting the meaning of the

remarkable psychic changes accompanying the administration of the hallucino-

gens. Thus understood, the significance of the first Conference session becomes

clearer, with Dr. Cerletti orientating the meeting into the relationship of hallu-

cinogens to other, both naturally occurring and synthetic, chemical substances.

He indicated the importance of the chemical similarities and differences between

the known compounds, as far as they are known. The remaining speakers in the

opening session, drawn from the fields of experimental medicine and pharma-

cology, succeeded in establishing that some system which normally holds

together and integrates mental functioning is temporarily gravely impaired after

the administration of hallucinogens. This system may be identified as the ego

by the psychologist or the reticular arousal system by the neurophysiologist,

and the significance of this finding is not only of great importance to the

psychotherapist, but also offers a way of understanding between clinicians and

research workers.

As the conference settled down to discuss the clinical applications of the

hallucinogenic drugs, less emphasis was placed on their property of producing

visual and other hallucinations and more on their ability to loosen and disin-

tegrate ego function. This emphasis had led at Göttingen to the adoption by the

psychotherapists of the term 'psycholytic' as more appropriately describing what

happens to patients in this therapy. In this connection the long-standing

discussion as to whether the psycholytic drugs are psychotomimetic was

re-opened and Professor Martin Roth in his discussion of the papers of the

second session drew attention to the fact that it is the affective changes which

are more noticeable after the administration of LSD and that these should be

stressed rather than any comparison with the schizophrenic states.

Several speakers discussed the types of case most suitable for LSD therapy,

and there seemed some general agreement that tension states, phobic and ob-

sessive neurosis, sexual disorders and psychopathic conditions form the bulk

of cases successfully treated. Furthermore there was some agreement among

speakers that the revival of emotionally charged memories of childhood as well

as various abreactive phenomena, including acting-out, were important aspects

of treatment. The significance of transference relationships and of suggestion led

on to important contributions in the field of 'brain-washing' and hypnosis. In

view of the emotional content of the subject, the reader must draw his own

conclusions about the extent to which therapy with the psycholytics is related

to 'brain-washing'. At times it became clear that one of the difficulties in the

use of LSD arose from the therapist's very enthusiasm and affective identification

with the treatment situation. This state of affairs drew comment from the

analysts, whose role in the conference was that of devil's advocates rather than

that of disciples to the psycholytic therapists.

That the analysts should display reserve in relation to LSD therapy

became apparent when speakers described their methodology—frequently so

opposed to the traditional methods of psychoanalysis. Thus, speakers insisted on

the importance of a group atmosphere and of free communication between

1961 - Royal Medico-Psychological Association - Hallucinogenic Drugs and their Psychotherapeutic Use.pdf

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: