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Authors: Andy Roberts
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a small dose of Ritalin to stimulate his central nervous system. Then, alone in the locked room, Howerd was left to recall and write down hisearliest childhood memories. Props such as teddy bears, mirrors, family photographs, dummies and other reminders were supplied so Howerd could act out his childhood repressions. At the two-hour stage another dose of Ritalin was administered to inspire “penetrating understanding” and reflection on the experience.
The LSD session was terminated at 11.00 pm by a mixture of Largactil and Sodium Amytal which caused Howerd to drift from psychedelic awareness into a deep sleep. On waking he would write a report of his LSD experience which Ling would then use as the basis for psychoanalysis. Howerd had many LSD sessions under Ling’s guidance and believed they left him a calmer person, more capable of understanding the impact his father had had on him and with more insight into his strengths and weaknesses. Heymer, however, wasn’t convinced that LSD therapy was useful for Howerd, “It didn’t do him any good. I wouldn’t recommend it at all.” 23
Michael Horsley-Millman remembers the LSD therapists at the Marlborough as being highly competent at putting the traumatised human psyche back together as they: “... led one on and on, through doors off corridors of one’s self built haunted house ... down stairways that Hitchcock’s
Psycho
never knew existed. Far beyond any hallucination that today’s drug culture imposes ... an outward beyondness that says ‘before birth, before mother’s breast, before, before’, in pretty pictures in blue and gold, the heightened aura blocking out the persistent everyday thinking about thoughts which themselves don’t exist, but lay low like clutter on the floor of some dismal hovel.” 24
Most of those who used LSD as a psychotherapeutic tool did so quietly and without fuss. Publicity wasn’t actively courted but was accepted when it became necessary as a means to secure or maintain funding. There was however one flamboyant exception: R.D. “Ronnie” Laing.
Once Laing had qualified as a psychoanalyst he opened a practice in London’s Wimpole Street. In the burgeoning liberalism of the Sixties, Laing’s idiosyncratic approach to therapy meant he was instantly popular and patients flocked to him. LSD fascinated him and he first used it in 1960 when it was given to him by Dr. RichardGelfer. In line with many other medical professionals, Gelfer mistakenly believed LSD mimicked psychoses and introduced it to Laing as such. Laing’s experience however was that “... it was an experience of extraordinary familiarity ... enhancement of multi-levels of association that one can simultaneously bring to bear in a way that one only glimpses in a usual state of consciousness.” 25
The LSD experience firmly imprinted itself on Laing’s psyche. Laing had three precepts for anyone who wanted to become a psychoanalyst. The first was the person should undergo personal analysis, the second that they should read the standard edition of Freud and the third was that they should ingest LSD.
Laing soon included LSD in his psychoanalytical toolbox and his son and biographer, Adrian recalls former patients confiding: “... dropping acid with R.D. Laing was both exhilarating and liberating.” Some individuals reported that a six-hour LSD session with Laing was more effective than several years of traditional psychoanalysis. Unlike his colleagues in traditional LSD psychotherapy Laing preferred to take LSD with his patient, but took a smaller dose so he could exercise some control over the experience. 26
In 1966, Laing gave a presentation to the annual conference of the prestigious National Association for Mental Health. It consisted of a bold speech on the therapeutic benefits of LSD and mescaline. In it he demonstrated he knew exactly what the potential of LSD was and how it related to therapy: “An LSD or mescaline session in one person, with one set in
The LSD session was terminated at 11.00 pm by a mixture of Largactil and Sodium Amytal which caused Howerd to drift from psychedelic awareness into a deep sleep. On waking he would write a report of his LSD experience which Ling would then use as the basis for psychoanalysis. Howerd had many LSD sessions under Ling’s guidance and believed they left him a calmer person, more capable of understanding the impact his father had had on him and with more insight into his strengths and weaknesses. Heymer, however, wasn’t convinced that LSD therapy was useful for Howerd, “It didn’t do him any good. I wouldn’t recommend it at all.” 23
Michael Horsley-Millman remembers the LSD therapists at the Marlborough as being highly competent at putting the traumatised human psyche back together as they: “... led one on and on, through doors off corridors of one’s self built haunted house ... down stairways that Hitchcock’s
Psycho
never knew existed. Far beyond any hallucination that today’s drug culture imposes ... an outward beyondness that says ‘before birth, before mother’s breast, before, before’, in pretty pictures in blue and gold, the heightened aura blocking out the persistent everyday thinking about thoughts which themselves don’t exist, but lay low like clutter on the floor of some dismal hovel.” 24
Most of those who used LSD as a psychotherapeutic tool did so quietly and without fuss. Publicity wasn’t actively courted but was accepted when it became necessary as a means to secure or maintain funding. There was however one flamboyant exception: R.D. “Ronnie” Laing.
Once Laing had qualified as a psychoanalyst he opened a practice in London’s Wimpole Street. In the burgeoning liberalism of the Sixties, Laing’s idiosyncratic approach to therapy meant he was instantly popular and patients flocked to him. LSD fascinated him and he first used it in 1960 when it was given to him by Dr. RichardGelfer. In line with many other medical professionals, Gelfer mistakenly believed LSD mimicked psychoses and introduced it to Laing as such. Laing’s experience however was that “... it was an experience of extraordinary familiarity ... enhancement of multi-levels of association that one can simultaneously bring to bear in a way that one only glimpses in a usual state of consciousness.” 25
The LSD experience firmly imprinted itself on Laing’s psyche. Laing had three precepts for anyone who wanted to become a psychoanalyst. The first was the person should undergo personal analysis, the second that they should read the standard edition of Freud and the third was that they should ingest LSD.
Laing soon included LSD in his psychoanalytical toolbox and his son and biographer, Adrian recalls former patients confiding: “... dropping acid with R.D. Laing was both exhilarating and liberating.” Some individuals reported that a six-hour LSD session with Laing was more effective than several years of traditional psychoanalysis. Unlike his colleagues in traditional LSD psychotherapy Laing preferred to take LSD with his patient, but took a smaller dose so he could exercise some control over the experience. 26
In 1966, Laing gave a presentation to the annual conference of the prestigious National Association for Mental Health. It consisted of a bold speech on the therapeutic benefits of LSD and mescaline. In it he demonstrated he knew exactly what the potential of LSD was and how it related to therapy: “An LSD or mescaline session in one person, with one set in
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