 |
This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (November 2007) |
| Humphrey Osmond | |
| Born | July 1, 1917 |
|---|---|
| Died | February 6, 2004 (aged 86) |
| Residence | UK, Canada, USA |
| Fields | Psychiatry & Psychology |
| Known for | Coining the terms Psychedelic and LSD Therapy, acting as a go-between for the Native American Church and non-Native people |
Humphrey Fortescue Osmond (July 1, 1917 - February 6, 2004) was a British psychiatrist known for inventing the word psychedelic and for using psychedelic drugs in medical research. Osmond also explored aspects of the psychology of social environments, in particular how they influenced welfare or recovery within mental institutions.
Contents |
Biography
Osmond was born in Surrey and educated at Haileybury.[1] As a young man, he worked for an architect and attended Guy's Hospital Medical School at King's College London. During World War II, Osmond trained to become a psychiatrist while active as a surgeon-lieutenant in the Navy.
Work with hallucinogens
After the war, Osmond and his colleague John Smythies perceived a similarity between the effects of LSD and the early stages of schizophrenia. In 1951, Osmond and Smythies moved to Saskatchewan, Canada to join the staff of a large custodial mental institution in the southeastern city of Weyburn, Saskatchewan.
At Weyburn, Osmond recruited a group of research psychologists to turn the hospital into a design-research laboratory. There, he conducted a wide variety of patient studies and observations using hallucinogenic drugs. In 1952, Osmond related the similarity of mescaline to adrenaline molecules, in a theory which implied that schizophrenia might be a form of self-intoxication caused by one's own body. In 1953, Osmond provided English author Aldous Huxley with a dose of mescaline.[2] As a result of his experience, Huxley produced an enthusiastic book called The Doors of Perception, describing the look of the Hollywood Hills and his reactions to artwork while under the influence. Though Osmond is not named, it is believed that he is referred to in the book.
Osmond first offered the term "psychedelic" at a meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1957. He said the word meant "mind manifesting" (from "mind", ψυχή (psyche), and "manifest", δήλος (delos)) and called it "clear, euphonious and uncontaminated by other associations." Huxley had sent Osmond a rhyme containing his own suggested invented word: "To make this trivial world sublime, take half a gram of phanerothyme" (thymos meaning 'spiritedness' in Greek.) Osmond countered with "To fathom Hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic."
Osmond is also known for a study in the late 1950s in which he attempted to cure alcoholics with LSD, claiming a fifty percent success rate.[3] One of his patients was reported to be Bill W., co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Involvement with the Native American Church
Osmond participated in a Native American Church ceremony in which he ingested peyote. His hosts were Plains Indians, members of the Red Pheasant Band, and the all-night ceremony took place near North Battleford (in the region of the South Saskatchewan River). Osmond published his report on the experience in Tomorrow magazine, Spring 1961. He reported details of the ceremony, the environment in which it took place, the effects of the peyote, the courtesy of his hosts, and his conjecture as to the meaning for them of the experience and of the Native American Church.[4]
Other interests
Beyond his interest in drug- and vitamin-assisted therapeutics, Osmond conducted research into the long-term effects of institutionalization, and began a line of research into what he called "socio-architecture" to improve patient settings, coining the terms "sociofugal" and "sociopedal", starting Robert Sommer's career, and contributing to environmental psychology.
Later, Osmond became director of the Bureau of Research in Neurology and Psychiatry at the New Jersey Psychiatric Institute in Princeton, and then a professor of psychology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Dr. Osmond co-wrote eleven books and was widely published throughout his career.
Osmond died of cardiac arrhythmia in 2004.
References
- ^ Humphry Osmond obituary [1]
- ^ Martin, Douglas. Friday, August 22, 2008 "Humphry Osmond, 86, Who Sought Medicinal Value in Psychedelic Drugs, Dies". New York: New York Times
- ^ Martin, Douglas. Friday, August 22, 2008 "Humphry Osmond, 86, Who Sought Medicinal Value in Psychedelic Drugs, Dies". New York: New York Times
- ^ Aaronson, Bernard, and Osmond, Humphrey. Psychedelics: The Uses and Implications of Hallucinogenic Drugs. 1970. Anchor Books. Double Day and Company, Inc. Garden City, New York. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 70-103788.
External links
- Obituary: BMJ. 2004 Mar 20;328(7441):713.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
