Lauretta Bender: Seminal Psychiatrist & Forgotten Psychedelic Pioneer

Chris Elcock

As historians gradually shed more light on women’s perspectives in the rich history of psychedelics, we are slowly beginning to see the underappreciated role women played in the rise of psychedelic science in the postwar era. Unsurprisingly, very few women were official members of the research teams (never mind team leaders) in major hospitals and universities, and they were almost never credited for the thousands of scientific publications that resulted from research into LSD and other psychedelics. The cultural climate of the time, which confined women to the sphere of domesticity and gendered stereotypes, was largely responsible for this imbalance... continue reading.