Then (1987), Storming Heaven
The Leary Legacy Reassessed: Was He Entirely Wrong?
Stevens presents Leary as the cautionary figure, the researcher who turned a clinical program into a political confrontation and guaranteed the 1968 backlash. This is broadly accurate as history. But it raises the question: was Leary's contribution entirely negative?
partially-confirmed
The case for Leary's positive contribution: (1) The Concord Prison Experiment results, for all their methodological problems, were the first evidence of psychedelics reducing criminal recidivism, a finding now confirmed by modern studies. (2) Leary's popularization made these substances culturally known, creating the mass awareness that eventually made political reform possible, the 2020 Oregon ballot measure was passed by voters who had heard of psilocybin. (3) His emphasis on 'set and setting' (borrowed from Osmond's framework but popularized by Leary) became the dominant clinical concept in psychedelic therapy. Stevens's account is historically accurate about the short-term damage. The long-term picture is more complex: Leary introduced these ideas to a mass audience that eventually built the political coalition for reform.
Sources
- Doblin, Dr. Leary's Concord Prison Experiment: a 34-year follow-up, J Psychoactive Drugs (1998)
- Leary, The Psychedelic Experience (1964)
- Oregon Measure 109 voter data (2020)