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Historiography in general, and that produced in France in particular, traditionally presents narcotics as uniformly dangerous substances. This systematic focus on addiction, deviance, and risks for users or society, observable for instance in the majority of historical dissertations on the topic of psychoactive substances, obscures the existence of research fields concerning their therapeutic uses—which were, in fact, the original reason for their integration into Western practices. This article will thus offer an analytical and critical overview of historical research that examines the “career” of narcotics as medicines, a field primarily dominated on the one hand by Anglo-American literature, and on the other by authors from medical professions who are not trained in historical methodology. Additionally, it will attempt to highlight various research avenues that remain to be explored in order to deepen our understanding of the medical uses of these controversial substances.

The concept of agency is very significantly an unthought of the issue of female drug use. Consulting the bibliographies or different search engines on the topic will make it possible to be convinced of this: first, and more generally, it is clear that the subject of psychotropic drugs is still mainly treated from the point of view of addiction. When the study looks – rarely – at female consumption, the topic addressed will almost inevitably focus on two poles: prostitution and the management of maternity. In order to go beyond this admittedly important but particularly restrictive diptych, we will attempt in this study to apply the notion of the capacity to act to female morphine addicts of the 19th century, who constitute the first “type” category of drug addicts in contemporary history.

Célina Marcil…, a 27-year-old laundress, had been interned at the Salpêtrière hospital since 1867. Diagnosed as hysterical, suffering from vaginismus, she suffered extremely violent attacks. In order to relieve her and to keep the ward calm, the hospital’s alienists were in the habit of generously providing sedatives such as ether or morphine to their patients. Her doctors therefore administered high doses of psychotropic drugs which in fact exacerbated her erotic delusions, meticulously transcribed in her case study. Within a coercive institution and under the libidinous glance of the medical staff, Celina Marcil nevertheless showed a certain capacity for action. Demanding to the point of violence that her doctors provide her with the desired quantities of ether or morphine, using them to intensify her voluptuous reactions, using ether to achieve the sexual pleasure impossible to reach with her lover, the young woman managed for a time to adapt to her condition.

Though it had been one of the most studied pharmacological substances in the years 1950-1970, LSD, a potent psychedelic with numerous therapeutic indications, came to be neglected by the international scientific community in the early 1970s. Whereas factors that are external to medicine have had an impact on the decline of this drug, it is also necessary to ponder on the internal causes of such rejection. To do so, some Anglo-Saxon literature has been emerging in recent years in the field of psychedelic studies to be here enriched through a study highlighting the specificities of French sources on the subject. This paper is meant to show how the method of so-called “psychedelic” psychotherapy designed by some of the researchers using LSD, together with the questioning of their probity, as these therapists were deemed to be “overenthusiastic”, have both then been key factors in bringing this drug into disrepute.

L’année 1966 voit l’apparition dans les médias français d’une nouvelle drogue aux effets présentés comme particulièrement délétères. Le LSD serait à l’origine de psychoses prolongées, de suicides, et mènerait la jeunesse américaine à se rebeller contre la société. Or, à cette époque, la substance est encore principalement un médicament et un outil d’étude du cerveau. Des milliers d’articles scientifiques ont été publiés sur le sujet et démontrent la sécurité de son usage ainsi que ses bénéfices thérapeutiques dans de nombreuses applications. Ces succès n’ayant pas bénéficié d’une couverture médiatique en France, le pays découvre avec effroi l’existence de ce psychotrope menaçant. Le champ lexical de la folie est particulièrement présent dans la couverture médiatique : désormais, c’est dans ce cadre conceptuel que sera appréhendé le LSD. Le gouvernement réagit rapidement en classant la substance dans le tableau des stupéfiants ; cette mesure a pour effet de mettre un terme aux recherches médicales menées à l’époque sur la substance. Par cette étude de cas, l’article vise à illustrer l’impact des paniques morales sur la production scientifique au sujet des psychotropes en s’appuyant sur la littérature médicale et les productions médiatiques de l’époque.

Key Clinical Message: This case study describes the feasibility and safety of psychedelic‐assisted therapy (PAT) as a home‐based intervention for a patient with throat cancer experiencing significant existential distress. The patient tolerated the intervention well. This case supports the feasibility and safety of PAT for patients with life‐threatening conditions in a home setting. Psychedelic‐assisted therapy (PAT), as it is practiced today, merges traditional psychotherapeutic techniques with the use of psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, or MDMA with the aim of unlocking deeper insights in patients and treating mental conditions that are resistant to other forms of therapy. The present case study describes the safety of PAT as a home‐based intervention for a patient with throat cancer experiencing significant existential distress. The patient tolerated the intervention well and was asked to report on measures of anxiety, depression, and distress related to his somatic condition. The observations provided by this clinical case report align with previous findings, suggesting that PAT can be safely applied to potentially provide relief from existential distress in patients with life‐threatening conditions. As this is a single‐case study, generalizations should be made cautiously. Moreover, placebo effects, expectancy effects, and the natural course of the disease may influence outcomes. Future research should consider controlled trials to ascertain the efficacy and safety of such interventions in diverse settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the historical protocols for the administration of “classic” psychedelics in France, from the 1920s to the 1960s. Taking a chronological approach, it investigates the way mescaline, LSD, and psilocybin were administered, the subjects involved, the route of administration, the dosage, and the epistemological context of the research. From the 1930s, the Sainte-Anne school dominated French experimentation with psychedelics, inserting these studies on “hallucinogens” into a biological conception of therapeutics, where the notion of “shock” dominated. The sessions show particularly anxious experiences, sometimes described as “torture” by the patients who underwent them. With just a few rare cases of recovery reported, these substances were not considered as medicines, but rather as tools for exploration in the context of experimental research; thought of not as psychedelics (“mind manifesters”) but as psychodysleptics (“mind disruptors”). While these tools could be useful for the diagnosis of sick patients, French physicians did not manage to demonstrate clear therapeutic benefits in the use of psychedelics, perhaps because of their reluctance, in most cases, to determine an optimum dose, and also very often to appreciate the context of administration and the relationship with the patient. This article allows us to understand the reasons for the therapeutic failures reported by these early French psychedelic researchers, but also to help explain the current reluctance of French health professionals who in the face of the “psychedelic renaissance” remain strongly influenced by the very negative early representations of these substances.