Psychedelic syndrome
Open-knowledge reference entry
Psychedelic syndrome, also known as chronic LSD syndrome or "acid head" syndrome, is a partially culture-bound psychological syndrome that was proposed to involve pronounced psychosocial and personality changes due to chronic or prolonged use of psychedelic drugs, namely LSD. It was first proposed in 1969 by a physician named David E. Smith, who was the founder and medical director of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic (also known as the "hippie clinic") in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco and who had encountered many people frequently using LSD. He was also an academic and the founder and editor of the Journal of Psychedelic Drugs (1967–present). Others besides Smith made similar or analogous informal observations of the phenomenon as well.
According to Smith, the syndrome resulted in profound alterations in psychosocial functioning and lifestyle. The symptoms of the syndrome were claimed to include belief in magic or magical concepts; intense study of "metaphysical objects"; superstition; belief in astrology; belief in mental telepathy, extrasensory perception (ESP), and telekinesis; mysticism; and isolation from general or mainstream society. Additional symptoms were said to include a profound belief in non-violence and rejection of physical aggression, with consequent frequent adoption of vegetarianism due to the rejection of killing; a deep desire to return to nature and more natural ways of being; and self-psychoanalytic, pseudoreligious, and creative aspirations. The symptoms were said to be uncharacteristic of the demographics of the individuals exhibiting them, for instance many of them being from middle-class homes, being above-average in intelligence, previously holding conventional beliefs, and having little background in mystical ideas. They were also said to not be consistent with schizophrenia, as cognitive abilities and intense interpersonal relationships remained intact, and the individuals could only be described as "eccentric". The syndrome and its symptoms have also been referred to as an "unstructured psychedelic religion".
People who were claimed to have had psychedelic syndrome often belonged to the psychedelic community or hippie subculture and frequently grouped together in communal living situations. They did not feel themselves to be mentally ill and were not considered sick by other members of their community.
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This entry incorporates text from “Psychedelic syndrome” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.