Humphry Osmond

Humphy Osmond is an English psychiatrist who originally coined the word psychedelic.

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Humphy Fortescue Osmond (1 July 1917 – 6 February 2004) was born in England and lived and worked there, in Canada and The United States.

In England, he, together with John Smythies, developed the theory that schizophrenia was caused by a chemical imbalance. This work was partly informed by psychedelics, which they likened to producing similar states of mind. See Storming Heaven chapter four for more background.

In 1953 Osmond provided Aldous Huxley with a dose of mescaline. From their correspondence also followed the word psychedelic:

“To fathom Hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic.”

Although to be more precise, Osmond first proposed the term at a meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1956.

Finally, he is known for studies that used LSD to cure alcoholism with a fifty-percent success rate. The co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill W., was among the research participants.

Notable Research Papers

• Models of alcoholism (Siegler, Osmond & Newell, 1968)
• Schizophrenia: a new approach (Osmond & Smythies, 1952)

Find more on Google Scholar

Media

• Dr Humphry Osmond Obituary (The Telegraph, February 2004)
• Or the title of YouTube/another video with a possibly short description