The history of the use of LSD in medicine follows the usual pattern for a new drug: first, speculation on its use and mechanisms following preliminary browsing research; second, exaggerated claims about its value; and third, carefully controlled trials. This book is the first in what will undoubtedly be a long list of reports on the latter category. It is important for its virtues as well as for its deficiencies.
LSD would be just another in the list of psychoactive drugs which show promise of usefulness if it were not for two factors. The first is that it has been taken up by young drug users for its "psychedelic" effects and has received enormous popular publicity. The second is that one cannot help being convinced that a drug which can produce such profound mental changes in such tiny doses (<50μg) is probably touching the core of some vital neurological process