Jay... believes that drug experimentation facilitated the birth of “the modern mind”. But there’s no rigorous analysis of what this might mean ... Nevertheless, the author’s central point, that the history of experimentation is more venerable and complex than many assume, is clearly right and not something you get taught at school.
Jay...demonstrate[s] that humanity’s relationship to mind-altering substances runs deep and long ... , Jay’s sharp and playful intervention places psychoactive substances at the center of both the fin de siècle psychological revolutions and the rise of the 20th century’s conservative scientific paradigm.
Psychonauts largely ignores the mass stupefaction of the present ... Instead, Mr. Jay compounds five grains of Victorian nostalgia with one grain of psychedelic futurism ... Mr. Jay makes the libertarian case for blowing your mind.
The latest in a series of excellent studies ... The process by which drugs were stigmatized, at the end of the nineteenth century, is the subject of Jay’s final chapters. In his telling, it is a story of loss.
The history is captivating, and the author does a great job balancing research with vivid anecdotes and fascinating excerpts from cultural figures’ writings. It’s a welcome reconsideration of the role drugs play in life, medicine, and science.
