Psychiatry: Turning It on with LSD

What kind of person is likely to enjoy a trip on LSD? Only the extravert, Alabama Psychiatrist Patrick H. Linton suggested last week at a regional meeting of the National Association for Men tal Health. Dr. Linton gave equal doses of LSD-25 to 14 mental patients, all men, half of whom were introspective and trying to avoid contact with the outside world, while the other half were outgoing, eager to meet people and to talk about themselves. The results were astonishingly uniform.

The tense, withdrawn subjects said precious little about their LSD experience except to complain of pain, weakness, dizziness and feelings of apprehension. They did not dredge up recollections of infancy or talk about their emotional problems. They scarcely moved, even when they were lying in obviously uncomfortable positions. When asked about changes in the appearance of the room or the view from the window, they usually reported none.

They described no hallucinations or perceptual distortions.

The extraverts, by contrast, enthusiastically described how the floor became wavy, the wall paneling moved like ocean waves, and the light fixtures became fluid.

Nearly all saw vivid colors. One looked through the window and “saw” a nonexistent work gang on a nonexistent orange bridge. He watched the scene change to a phantom blue lake complete with a phantom ship. Another happily described the chalets in a Swiss village. All these patients enjoyed describing their LSD-distorted visions and did not complain of discomfort even when they reported feelings of being dismembered. They kept moving about to see how this would affect their sensations.

Dr. Linton and Psychologist Jack D. Hain had originally feared that the withdrawn, introverted patients might become disorganized and panic under the drug; they were surprised to find that their rigid control—which may be a part of their emotional illness—proved enough to sustain them through an experience that they disliked intensely. Only the subjects who might normally be classed as sensation seekers reacted like thrilled acidheads.