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Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind
30 November 2023, 6:15 pm–7:30 pm
UCL Health Humanities Centre is pleased to welcome Mike Jay to discuss his recent book, a provocative and original history of the scientists and writers, artists and philosophers who took drugs to explore the hidden regions of the mind.
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All | UCL staff | UCL students
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
Institute of Advanced Studies
Location
-
IAS Common GroundG11, ground floor, South WingUCL, Gower Street, LondonWC1E 6BTUnited Kingdom
Drawing on his recent book Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind (Yale University Press, 2023), Mike Jay will narrate the history of self-experiment with mind-altering drugs in the pharmacology and the mind sciences.
By the late nineteenth century the practice was widespread among those studying altered mental states and the subsconscious, including Sigmund Freud and William James. It was subsequently marginalised by the decline of introspective psychology and the stigmatisation of drug use, but re-emerged in the postwar era with the discovery of psychedelics.
Please register to attend at: https://ias-psychonauts.eventbrite.co.uk
UCL Health Humanities Centre draws together staff from different disciplines, departments and faculties engaged in teaching and research on matters relating to health, illness and well-being. The centre is based at UCL Institute of Advanced Studies.
About the Speaker
Mike Jay
Author and cultural historian
Mike Jay has written extensively on scientific and medical history and contributes regularly to the London Review of Books and the Wall Street Journal. His previous books on the history of drugs include Mescaline, High Society, and The Atmosphere of Heaven.
More about Mike Jay