Summary

“The Crack-Up.” In this chapter, Pollan excavates the history of famous LSD researcher and advocate Timothy Leary. He traces the early development of Leary’s character (as someone who loved publicity of any sort); suggests that Leary had become disillusioned with traditional psycho-analytic research and therapy; and that almost immediately after having his first experience with LSD, Leary decided he needed to spread the news of its spiritual benefits into a world that, in his opinion, needed to be transformed. Pollan describes the trajectory of Leary’s research at Harvard University (including the convincing of colleagues and students that his work was essential), and how the powers that be at that university became increasingly uncomfortable about both the non-academic structures of his research and the potentially negative impact on students, many of whom were Leary’s earliest subjects. As a pair of...