PSILOCYBIN RESEARCH

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I strongly disagree with the statement of Herbert C. Kelman, reported in the CRIMSON, March 15, concerning the psilocybin research being conducted at the Center for Research in Personality: "This work violates the values of the academic community." I feel it a grave mistake to make public criticism of this fascinating area of research on the basis of doubtful ethical considerations. The fact that the drug's properties lead people (including this writer) to be vaguely in awe and fear of its potentialities seems to be a rather poor reason for undertaking any criticism which might result in pressures restricting the freedom of the investigators involved. Not being associated personally with the research, either as subject or experimenter, I am not in a position to have heard reactions from more than a limited number of the subjects; however, I have not heard yet of any substantial reason (beyond "awe and fear") for crying "mispractice."

If any comment should be made about academic values, such as freedom in research, it should be that important values are being threatened by public critics of the psilocybin research who would make a premature ethical judgment. Leary, Alpert and the graduate students working with them are as capable as anyone else of making decisions as to the advisability of using certain research procedures; they are exploring a field in which it might be a mistake to be bound and restricted by traditional methods. In the long run, the proof will be, and should be, in the pudding. Researchers will always be judged by their results. The present enthusiasm of Leary and his associates is providing the stimulus for what may be a very valuable investigation. Such enthusiasm, no doubt, also carries with it some dangers. I am reminded of Freud's (pre-psychoanalytic) enthusiasm about the "exhilaration ... euphoria ... vitality ... self-control," resulting from his use of cocaine, on which he was doing research. He prescribed it to many of his friends for minor and major discomforts, with disastrous results in the case of Ernst von Fleischl, who became addicted. Leary and Alpert are undoubtedly quite well aware of similar potential dangers. It would be as much of a mistake to stifle their research as it would have been to stifle the research on cocaine and related anaesthetics which was prodded by the enthusiasm of Freud and other early investigators. Anthony G. Greenwald,   Teaching Fellow in Social Relations.