Humphry Osmond

Doctor Humphry Fortescue Osmond (born July 1, 1917 in Surrey, England - died February 6, 2004 in Appleton, Wisconsin) was a psychiatrist who researched hallucinogenic drugs and coined the word psychedelic to describe them.

Early in life, Osmond planned to become a banker, but found himself enrolled at Guy's Hospital Medical School at the University of London. He trained in the specialty of psychiatry while serving as a surgeon-lieutenant in the Royal Navy during World War II. Posted to St George's Hospital in London, he and John R. Smythies researched a theory that schizophrenia was caused by production of LSD-like compounds inside the brain.

The colleagues took their research to Saskatchewan Hospital in Canada after the war. They promoted the idea that using mescaline could induce short-term schizophrenia that would help doctors to understand patients' conditions and better equip them to treat the chronic disease. One of the participants in Osmond and Smythies studies was novelist Aldous Huxley. Although he had used the term "psychedelic" to describe hallucinogens in technical reports, it was through his correspondence with Huxley, and then through Huxley's The Doors of Perception, that the term reached the general public.

Osmond's next research program involved experimenting with using LSD to treat alcoholism. Along with Abram Hoffer, Osmond administered the drug to long-time members of Alcoholics Anonymous who had been unable to stop drinking. A year after the experiment, half of the subjects had not had a drink. No other study has come close to that rate of success. AA's founder, Bill Wilson, took LSD himself and was optimistic about the drug's use.

Osmond left Saskatchewan to direct the Bureau of Research in Neurology and Psychiatry at the New Jersey Psychiatric Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. He later became a psychology professor at UAB, with a research focus on schizophrenia. He did not pursue research into hallucinogens after they were made illegal.

Osmond retired to Wisconsin. He died at the age of 86 from cardiac arrhythmia. He was survived by his wife, Jane; three children, Euphemia, Helen, and Julian; and five grandchildren.

References

• Martin, Douglas (February 22, 2004) "Humphrey Osmond, 86, Who Sought Medicinal Value in Psychedelic Drugs, Dies." The New York Times.