Psychedelics

In the post-war era, especially during the 1960s and 1970s, some psychiatrists looked to psychedelic drug therapies and the anti-authoritarian politics of the counter-culture to transform traditional classifications and treatments of mental illness. In exploring how documentary film approached the converging worlds of clinical practice and popular culture at this time, this chapter examines Louis van Gasteren’s “LSD” documentaries, and how they chronicle his encounters with counter-culture figures like Timothy Leary, Bart Huges, and Simon Vinkenoog; as well as with the work of the Dutch psychiatrist, Jan Bastiaans, whose controversial LSD-assisted psychotherapeutic techniques were being used in the treatment of people suffering from Second World War-related post-traumatic stress disorder.