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A provocative and original history of the scientists, writers, artists, and philosophers who used drugs to explore the mind. Jay, a leading expert on Western drug use, investigates the roots of psychoactive exploration often associated with the mid-twentieth century. Until the twentieth century, self-experimentation was common among scientists studying drug effects, leading to vivid descriptions that sparked insights in mind sciences, pharmacology, medicine, and philosophy. These accounts inspired the public to conduct their own experiments through scientific demonstrations, exotic travels, literary salons, and occult rituals. However, after 1900, drugs became increasingly viewed as a social problem, leading to a decline in self-experimentation. Jay highlights figures like Sigmund Freud, who experimented with cocaine, and William James, who had an epiphany on nitrous oxide, recovering a lost intellectual tradition that contributed to the birth of psychology, the discovery of the unconscious, and modernism. As society embraces new cognitive enhancers and psychedelics, the experiments of these early psychonauts reveal the profound impact of mind-altering substances on Western science, philosophy, and culture.
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Psychonauts, Mike Jay
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- Année de publication
- 2024
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