The Effect of Group Administration Upon Symptom Formation Under LSD
Source: Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Vol 125 No 2 1957
Authors: Philip E. Slater, Kiyo Morimoto, and Robert W. Hyde
LSD was still a mystery in the late 1950s. Not to say it isn’t still a mystery today. However, much of what we take for granted as “common knowledge” regarding psychedelics wasn’t so common in the 1950s. For example, in this article, the doctors allude to what we know as “set” (i.e., the mental state of the person taking LSD). Here, they are trying to determine whether or not “the subject’s perception of the situation is capable of influencing his reaction to the drug.”
In this study, Slater, Morimoto, and Hyde designed two groups of volunteers: one group would take the LSD individually, while the other took LSD in a group setting. The doctors found a “sharp reduction,” in anxiety found in the group settings. However, they also showed more “hostility” and “overactivity.” On the other paw, those who took LSD singularly showed more “anxiety, depression, and inappropriate behavior.”