It's a M.A.D. World

Abstract

As the objective of any research is to increase knowledge of any particular subject, the experiments on LSD are to be concerned with the badly needed data. The claims of experimenters have ranged from "cure" of alcoholics to autistic and schizophrenic children--however unsubstantiated—must be subject to close scrutiny and comprehensive tests. Fantastic as some of the claims have been made, the primary or obvious changes, may quite often easily mask the secondary or underlying physiological and mental changes that can often be fatal. Physiological or medical tests can uncover only so much; psychological tests as the MMPI and observations, for the subjectsʻ sakes, uncover the rest, if possible. The alternative to drug use of LSD and other possibly potent drugs in therapy would sensibly be some non-chemical means as hypnosis, play therapy, psychoanalysis, etc. Drugs are not the panacea of which man so vainly seeks, rather it has become a crutch, a means for exaltation and disquiet. The premature uses of LSD as a therapeutic tool leaves much to be desired--the hopes that it will precipitate the road to cure may very well backfire. The use of safer though "slower” methods, possibly in combination, may bring about the same desired results and at the same time leave less room for unwarranted anxiety.