LSD, My Problem Child

New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980. Hardcover. Good+ (ex-library with library labels on spine (half torn off with sticker residue and inside rear cover, library stamp on block, front end page and title page verso. Soiling to ffep. Chipping to top of spine. All other pages are clean and clear with tight binding.). Black cloth boards with orange spine lettering; xiii, 209 pp; bw chemical formula diagram on rear page. "Albert Hofmann, who died in 2008 aged 102, first synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in 1938, but the results of animal tests were so unremarkable that the chemical was abandoned. Driven by intuition, he synthesized it again in 1943, and serendipitously noticed its profound effects on himself. Although his work produced other important drugs, including methergine, hydergine and dihydroergotamine, it was LSD that shaped his career. After his discovery of LSD's properties, Hofmann spent years researching sacred plants. He succeeded in isolating and synthesizing the active compounds in the Psilocybe mexicana mushroom, which he named psilocybin and psilocin." - website description. Contents include: LSD, my problem child: Introduction -- How LSD originated -- LSD in animal experiments and biological research -- Chemical modifications of LSD -- Use of LSD in psychiatry -- From remedy to inebriant -- The Mexican relatives of LSD : [the sacred mushroom Teonanácatl, psilocybine and psilocine, the "magic morning glory" Ololiuhqui, and the "magic plant" Ska María Pastora] -- Radiance from Ernest Jünger -- Meeting with Aldous huxley -- Correspondence with the poet-physician Walter Vogt -- Various visitors -- LSD experience and reality -- Appendix: Chemical formulæ. -- Insights/Outlooks: Introduction -- The transmitter-receiver model of reality -- Security in the natural-scientific worldview -- On possession -- The sun as nuclear power-plant.