Hallucinogens “may produce marked changes in our society”
by Federico Soldani
If there are doubts about how certain groups of substances were called for decades by the larger medical and research communities, here we have a 1967 treatise co-authored by the person, Dr. Osmond, who officially coined and then published the word “psychedelic” for the first time ten years before in 1957. See ‘Pneumadelic’? Osmond, 1957: “my own preference being ‘psychelytic’, or ‘psychedelic’ ” (PsyPolitics 2021).
Such treatise is the 600+ pages long “The Hallucinogens” (Academic Press, Inc 1967).
Below the Preface of the book is reproduced, with emphasis added in bold, which includes a discussion about why the two co-authors preferred to write of ‘hallucinogens’ instead of ‘psychedelics’ or other terms, despite one of the two co-authors being the one who officially coined the term ‘psychedelic’ and then published it ten years earlier in 1957 !
Despite nomenclature of these substances being largely taken for granted in the 2020s as the new term of choice, psychedelic, is rapidly becoming widespread including in medicine (see ‘Hallucinogens, not psychedelics’. A letter to the Editor of The New England Journal of Medicine (PsyPolitics 2021) and Hallucinogens: antidepressants hype, cubed. PsyPolitics 2023), the debate about nomenclature is far from settled, as this text by the inventor and proponent of the word psychedelic shows all too clearly. The importance of nomenclature for such substances, and those with similar properties, cannot be overstated.
The two co-authors, in a Preface to this comprehensive pharmacological technical treatise, also mention, as Osmond did already a decade earlier in the paper in which the word psychedelic was published for the first time, the political dimension of such substances stating that hallucinogens “may produce marked changes in our society”.
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Preface
In 1954 we designated mescaline, lysergic acid diethylamide, and adrenochrome as hallucinogens. The only other substances which we classed as hallucinogens were the active principals from marijuana, harmala alkaloids, and ibogain, not at the time identified chemically for certain. In the past decade so many additional hallucinogens have been discovered, studied, and described and so many new publications have appeared that this may be the last time it will be possible to give a detailed description of the hallucinogens in a single volume. Within another five to ten years each hallucinogen may well require its own monograph.
The term “hallucinogen” is not completely satisfactory since it overemphasizes the perceptual elements of the response to these drugs, and perceptual changes are often minor; changes in thought and mood are much more important. Other terms have been suggested but they, too, have faults. Thus, psychotomimetic has been used as a general description, but these compounds do not necessarily make the subject psychotic. The term delirients seem no better since subjects given these compounds are seldom delirious. Psychedelic, Osmond’s word, refers to a particular kind of drug reaction, as does, of course, psychotomimetic, or delirium. For these reasons it seems appropriate to continue using the term hallucinogens for a variety of substances which can produce reactions which may be psychotomimetic, psychedelic, or delirient, depending upon many other factors.
Hallucinogens are then chemicals which in nontoxic doses produce changes in perception, in thought, and in mood., but which seldom produced mental confusion, memory loss, or disorientation for person, place, and time. These latter changes are characteristic of organic brain reactions following intoxications with alcohol, anesthetics, and other toxic drugs.
This work has been written for chemists, biochemists, psychologists, sociologists, and research physicians. It cannot, therefore, satisfy each group fully, but we believe that it is sufficiently comprehensive and well documented so that each group can use it as a springboard for future enquiry into these fascinating chemicals.
The use of hallucinogens has been described as one of the major advances of this century. There is little doubt that they have had a massive impact upon psychiatry, and may produce marked changes in our society. The violent reaction for and against the hallucinogens suggests that even if these compounds are not universally understood and approved of they will neither be forgotten nor neglected.
A. Hoffer
H. Osmond
September, 1967
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Last Updated on January 4, 2024 by Federico Soldani