One hundred years ago the book ‘Phantastica. Die betäubenden und erregenden Genussmittel. Für Ärzte und Nichtärzte.’ (1924), which in English would be ‘Phantastica. Narcotic and stimulating drugs. For doctors and non doctors’ by the German doctor and university researcher Louis Lewin (1850-1929) was originally published. The second German edition of 1927 was the basis for the first English edition of 1931 “Phantastica. Narcotic and stimulating drugs. Their use and abuse”.
Lewin is considered one of the founders of the field we refer to as psychopharmacology. ‘Phantastica’ by Louis Lewin was a milestone in psychopharmacology because it systematically classified (although he was not the first to do this, see for example Paolo Mantegazza, 1831-1910, and his classification of “Alimenti Nervosi” of 1858) psychoactive substances based on their effects, combining scientific analysis with cultural and historical insights. It laid the foundation for understanding the pharmacological and societal roles of intoxicating and stimulating, i.e., mind or behaviour altering, drugs.
Lewin in the book considered five different categories for mind altering drugs (from the first English edition): (1) euphorica / sedatives, (2) phantastica / hallucinating (which gave the name to the entire book and which included Cannabis), (3) inebriantia, (4) hypnotica / soporifics, (5) excitantia.
Indeed the botanical name of the North American Peyote cactus – which produces the alkaloid mescaline – was adapted earlier, before 1924, in a version that is not formally accepted anymore nowadays, to honour Lewin’s studies on the cactus and its psychoactive alkaloids: Lophophora williamsii also known as Lophophora lewinii, which in the book Lewin referred to as Anhalonium lewinii.
Lewin as soon as he describes the substances in the dedicated chapter entitled in the first English edition of 1931 ‘Phantastica: Hallucinating Substances’, at the very beginning talks about ‘visions’ and how these “‘internal visions’, subjectively considered” might be “real happenings which he who experiences such inward perceptions may regard as true”, quoting what “the prophet Ezekiel wrote: ‘the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God”.
In subsequent pages of the seminal book known simply as ‘Phantastica’ he keeps describing these substances and their effects referring to them – in the original German first edition – as (capital letters in the original, bold added for emphasis) ‘Phantastica oder Halluzinatoria’, which was translated in the 1931 English edition as ‘Phantastica or Hallucinatoria’.
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Cite this article as: Federico Soldani, “‘Phantastica oder Halluzinatoria’: Louis Lewin, 1924 (2024)” in PsyPolitics, December 5, 2024, https://psypolitics.org/2024/12/05/phantastica-oder-halluzinatoria-louis-lewin-1924-2024/
Last Updated on December 6, 2024 by Federico Soldani