Problem child

An anthology dedicated to the transnational history of psychedelic drugs and culture seems a timely enterprise. We are twenty or so years into what has become known as the ‘psychedelic renaissance’, the global revival of interest in compounds such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin centring on their use alongside psychotherapy as treatments for a growing number of mental health disorders.

Previous books which have both documented and shaped this revival – most notably Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind (2018) – have recalled the history of the psychotherapeutic use of psychedelics dating back to the 1950s, but largely through a Western-centric lens. Expanding Mindscapes seeks to redress this imbalance by offering what editors Erika Dyck and Chris Elcock call in their introduction ‘perspectives currently lacking in the historiography of psychedelics’ and ‘important discussions on hitherto underexplored or untouched topics such as gender, parapsychology, anarchism, and technological innovation’.