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History Post-confederation (1867-)

The Acid Room

The Psychedelic Trials and Tribulations of Hollywood Hospital

by (author) Jesse Donaldson & Erika Dyck

Publisher
Anvil Press
Initial publish date
Mar 2022
Category
Post-Confederation (1867-), General
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781772141863
    Publish Date
    Mar 2022
    List Price
    $18

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Description

From the street, New Westminster's Hollywood Hospital didn't look like much - just a rambling white mansion, mostly obscured behind the holly trees from which it took its name. But, between 1957 and 1968, it was the site of more than 6000 supervised acid trips, as part of the burgeoning (and controversial) field of psychedelic psychiatry. Under the care of Medical Director J Ross MacLean, and ex-spy/researcher Al "Captain Trips" Hubbard, it became a mecca for alcoholics, anxiety patients, and unhappy couples (as well as celebrities like Andy Williams), its unorthodox methods boasting a success rate of nearly 80%. But the same media attention that brought the hospital to prominence also assured its downfall, as prohibition forces drove their work underground for more than 50 years. Written by 49.2 regular Jesse Donaldson and academic historian Erika Dyck, The Acid Room takes readers into the hospital's inner sanctum, charting its meteoric rise and fall as it opened up brave new worlds in medicine, and put Canada at the forefront of a movement that is only now being fully explored.

About the authors

Jesse Donaldson's profile page

Erika Dyck is a historian of health, medicine, and Canadian society at the University of Saskatchewan. Her research has concentrated on the history of mental health, institutionalization, and experimentation.
 

Erika Dyck's profile page

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