[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
research and while such considerations may be felt to have only indirect bearing upon
therapy, they should not be passed over.
It is the view of the authors that the psychedelic drugs present the most potent
tools for psychological research which have yet been discovered. Research possibilities
range from simple perceptual experiments to highly complex empathic studies. The
research value of the psychedelics stems from two major aspects of the experience which
they induce.
Firstly, when the experimenter takes the drug, he becomes aware of his own
awareness. He becomes a witness to his own emotions, his own intellectual processes,
and his own activity. He can examine the articulation of each of these upon the others
and observe their relationship to his perception. Indeed, he can observe concept
formation and learning going on from the inside.
Secondly, when a group of investigators take the drug at the same time, they
develop a closeness of relationship in terms of feeling which verges upon the telepathic.
Thus scientists can develop shared introspection and can begin to evolve research
techniques which will permit the comparison of emotional states the measurement of
emotion.
Experimentation and study in these areas offer the hope that eventually they may
permit a signal advance in psychological understanding. Early introspectionists were
unable to provide shareable information as a basis for scientific inquiry. Only through
limiting investigation to the behavior of organisms have we been able to arrive at some
level of objectivity and shareability of results. Such an approach, however, confines
psychology to the observation of activity and to a concept of man as the sum of his
activity.
Psychedelic research promises eventually to permit the investigator to get beyond
the behavioral manifestations and into the area of the underlying motivation.
One source of error in framing research in this area should be pointed out. The
investigator should not try to study the drug effect in subjects until they have taken the
drug a half dozen times before he is used as a research subject. There is a basic
confusion of purposes when one attempts to determine the drug effect upon various tasks
during the first session. The administration of tests completely alters the experience in
early sessions. What is assessed is the degree of confusion in a subject whose reality ties
are loosened bye the drug and further altered bye the testing. The test administration and
indeed the research set up in which he is a guinea-pig may alter the entire nature of
perceptions. Almost universally, results obtained from testing under such circumstances
will show decreased efficiency of one kind or another and there is no method of sorting
extraneous situational effects from drug effects as such.
However, once the subject has learned and practiced how to stabilize the
experience, testing could be expected to reveal the extent of such phenomena as
perceptual enhancement and empathic sensitization. It becomes a challenge to the
researcher to seek out and classify the variables involved and to devise tests which will
yield valid and, if possible, quantifiable measure of them.
An outline of various areas in which research seem indicated is presented in
Appendix C.
Chapter 6. THE SETTING
The setting in which the treatment session is to be conducted must be comfortable
and quiet. Frequently the subject may feel like lying down. It is best to provide enough
chesterfields, cots or beds so that each person who has had the drug has a place to stretch
out comfortable.
The place should be quiet, not only as far as the general noise level is concerned
but particularly in terms of interruptions of intrusions of the outside world upon the
experience. Worries about getting home for supper or getting certain work done are
disruptive and all such interference should be reduced as much as possible. People
coming into the room can cause the subject to become upset, particularly from the second
to the eighth hour after he has taken the drug. If a group is to be used, all members
should be present when the experience begins. Other intrusions should be present when
the experience begins. Other intrusions should be kept to a minimum. This is more
difficult than it at first appears because LSD therapy usually catches the imagination and
provokes the curiosity of nearly all the staff members of the unit involved. Many people
will find excellent reasons to be in and out of the treatment room unless the policy of no
visitors is established.
The telephone too can be exceptionally disturbing. It is often the greatest
nuisance in a session. If the telephone is in the treatment room, the noise of its ringing is
a bother but no matter where it is, it is troublesome for the person called, whether or not
he has taken the drug, to completely alter his frame of reference such that he can conduct
a normal telephone conversation. As much as possible, telephone calls should be held
up.
At times, particularly in individual sessions, the subject may become extremely
restless or violent. At the height of this disturbed state he is apt to knock or throw things
about. For this reason it is wise to use fairly durable furnishings.
Washroom facilities should be relatively near by. It is often a severe strain on the
subject to have to walk through a ward or indeed to walk any distance under the effect of
the drug. Also, in subjects who become paranoid, the trip to the washroom offers
opportunity for them to attempt to get away from the session.
Chapter 7. EQUIPMENT [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl szkicerysunki.xlx.pl
research and while such considerations may be felt to have only indirect bearing upon
therapy, they should not be passed over.
It is the view of the authors that the psychedelic drugs present the most potent
tools for psychological research which have yet been discovered. Research possibilities
range from simple perceptual experiments to highly complex empathic studies. The
research value of the psychedelics stems from two major aspects of the experience which
they induce.
Firstly, when the experimenter takes the drug, he becomes aware of his own
awareness. He becomes a witness to his own emotions, his own intellectual processes,
and his own activity. He can examine the articulation of each of these upon the others
and observe their relationship to his perception. Indeed, he can observe concept
formation and learning going on from the inside.
Secondly, when a group of investigators take the drug at the same time, they
develop a closeness of relationship in terms of feeling which verges upon the telepathic.
Thus scientists can develop shared introspection and can begin to evolve research
techniques which will permit the comparison of emotional states the measurement of
emotion.
Experimentation and study in these areas offer the hope that eventually they may
permit a signal advance in psychological understanding. Early introspectionists were
unable to provide shareable information as a basis for scientific inquiry. Only through
limiting investigation to the behavior of organisms have we been able to arrive at some
level of objectivity and shareability of results. Such an approach, however, confines
psychology to the observation of activity and to a concept of man as the sum of his
activity.
Psychedelic research promises eventually to permit the investigator to get beyond
the behavioral manifestations and into the area of the underlying motivation.
One source of error in framing research in this area should be pointed out. The
investigator should not try to study the drug effect in subjects until they have taken the
drug a half dozen times before he is used as a research subject. There is a basic
confusion of purposes when one attempts to determine the drug effect upon various tasks
during the first session. The administration of tests completely alters the experience in
early sessions. What is assessed is the degree of confusion in a subject whose reality ties
are loosened bye the drug and further altered bye the testing. The test administration and
indeed the research set up in which he is a guinea-pig may alter the entire nature of
perceptions. Almost universally, results obtained from testing under such circumstances
will show decreased efficiency of one kind or another and there is no method of sorting
extraneous situational effects from drug effects as such.
However, once the subject has learned and practiced how to stabilize the
experience, testing could be expected to reveal the extent of such phenomena as
perceptual enhancement and empathic sensitization. It becomes a challenge to the
researcher to seek out and classify the variables involved and to devise tests which will
yield valid and, if possible, quantifiable measure of them.
An outline of various areas in which research seem indicated is presented in
Appendix C.
Chapter 6. THE SETTING
The setting in which the treatment session is to be conducted must be comfortable
and quiet. Frequently the subject may feel like lying down. It is best to provide enough
chesterfields, cots or beds so that each person who has had the drug has a place to stretch
out comfortable.
The place should be quiet, not only as far as the general noise level is concerned
but particularly in terms of interruptions of intrusions of the outside world upon the
experience. Worries about getting home for supper or getting certain work done are
disruptive and all such interference should be reduced as much as possible. People
coming into the room can cause the subject to become upset, particularly from the second
to the eighth hour after he has taken the drug. If a group is to be used, all members
should be present when the experience begins. Other intrusions should be present when
the experience begins. Other intrusions should be kept to a minimum. This is more
difficult than it at first appears because LSD therapy usually catches the imagination and
provokes the curiosity of nearly all the staff members of the unit involved. Many people
will find excellent reasons to be in and out of the treatment room unless the policy of no
visitors is established.
The telephone too can be exceptionally disturbing. It is often the greatest
nuisance in a session. If the telephone is in the treatment room, the noise of its ringing is
a bother but no matter where it is, it is troublesome for the person called, whether or not
he has taken the drug, to completely alter his frame of reference such that he can conduct
a normal telephone conversation. As much as possible, telephone calls should be held
up.
At times, particularly in individual sessions, the subject may become extremely
restless or violent. At the height of this disturbed state he is apt to knock or throw things
about. For this reason it is wise to use fairly durable furnishings.
Washroom facilities should be relatively near by. It is often a severe strain on the
subject to have to walk through a ward or indeed to walk any distance under the effect of
the drug. Also, in subjects who become paranoid, the trip to the washroom offers
opportunity for them to attempt to get away from the session.
Chapter 7. EQUIPMENT [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]