In memoriam: Humphry Osmond - Shroomery

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Weckowicz to undertake laboratory studies on size and
distance constancy, which Humphry felt were critical to
the perceptual changes in schizophrenia. He was also
interested in Galton’s theories of visual imagery, and in
using this as a personality typology.
Humphry explored the use of LSD in treating
alcoholics and psychopaths who were resistant to other
forms of treatment. He coined the terms psychotomimetic
to describe the ways in which LSD created a
model psychosis (root mime or mimic) and psychedelic
(psyche for mind and delic from the Greek delein, to
make manifest). In 1953 he administered 400 mg of
mescaline to Aldous Huxley, an episode described in
Huxley’s well-known book The doors of perception.
Humphry persuaded architect Kiyo Izumi to take LSD
to learn about the perceptual world in schizophrenia. If
the biochemical research had been successful in finding
an LSD-like substance in people with schizophrenia,
there would have been a Nobel Prize and worldwide
recognition.
Humphry made a lasting contribution to the field he
called socioarchitecture which later became environmental
psychology. His 1957 article ‘‘Function as the
basis of psychiatric ward design’’ was a classic during
the early years of EBR when mental hospital architecture
was on the front burner. Humphry advocated
small, sociopetal buildings, with bedrooms clustered
around lounge areas in a circular pattern. It was this
article that brought me to Saskatchewan for the most
exciting and rewarding years of my research career.
Several times a week, sometimes daily, I received handprinted
memos bubbling with new ideas, written in a
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R. Sommer / Journal of Environmental Psychology 24 (2004) 257–258
personal shorthand that he claimed saved him over a
hundred hours of writing time per year.
Like a few other creative thinkers in the behavioral
sciences, including George Herbert Mead and Kurt
Lewin, Humphry lacked the patience to write his own
magnum opus. Fortunately, there were colleagues to
lend assistance, resulting in over 11 co-authored books,
including The chemical basis of clinical psychiatry (with
A. Hoffer), Psychedelics (with B.S. Aaronson), The
future of time (with H.M. Yaker and F. Cheek), and
Models of madness (with M. Siegler). Some of his most
intriguing ideas were found in unpublished memos. I
recall his belief that if there were a biochemical
abnormality behind schizophrenia, it should be possible
to train dogs to sniff out individuals with this condition.
Like psychologists William James and Gardner Murphy,
Humphry believed that much could be learned
from spontaneous reports of paranormal experience.
After leaving Saskatchewan, Humphry became director
of the Bureau of Research in Neurology and
Psychiatry in Princeton NJ, and after that, served a
ward psychiatrist at Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa AL
and adjunct faculty member in the University of
Alabama Medical School. With his Bryce colleague
Cynthia Bisbee, he developed a novel program in patient
education. Most everything Humphry did was novel, for
that was the way his mind worked. He was a good
example of what William James called ‘‘unhabitual
perception.’’ He and Jane subsequently moved to
Appleton, Wisconsin to live with their daughter
Euphemia (Fee) Blackburn and her family. Humphry
died quietly at home on February 6, 2004.