PositiveThe Boston GlobeA bristling, courageous account of the moral struggles faced by critics in academic medicine ... A few of these accounts feel a bit hackneyed, as do his occasional detours into the realm of politics ... This deeply heartfelt book is the realization of that possibility, one that offers hope that — thanks to such acts of courage — lasting change is indeed within our reach.
Kate Zernike
MixedThe Boston GlobeZernike relies heavily on Hopkins’s notes, diaries, and memories in this account, and it shows. One longs to hear the responses from her alleged detractors ... Some of the history...seems belabored and obligatory, and some of the science feels unpacked ... None of this, though, detracts from the book’s central message: the power to effect institutional change through the judicious application of reason. That alone is reason enough to read this hopeful, uplifting account.
Michael Pollan
PositiveThe Boston GlobeOf the many trips Pollan describes — several in almost slavish detail — the most common takeaway is that \'love is everything.\' While Pollan admits that this observation is Hallmark card banal, he can’t help but be charmed by it. Nor can we. But what Pollan sometimes neglects to make clear in this alternatingly fascinating and frustrating book, is that the experience of taking these drugs is very much a reflection of who we are, and what we believe. The drugs themselves do not increase creativity or generate insights, or even truly provoke them ... Such quibbles aside, Pollan’s deeply researched chronicle will enlighten those who think of psychedelics chiefly as a kind of punchline to a joke about the Woodstock generation and hearten the growing number who view them as a potential antidote to our often stubbornly narrow minds.
