Hana K.'s third LSD experience was terrifying. At first, beautiful images flashed before her eyes: fountains of flowers, fields of tulips, peacock Perya. Then the pictures changed: monsters, claws, demonic eyes, vampires appeared. She saw kings and beggars dead, buried, eaten by worms, providing food for animals and eventually other people. «Imagine the endless movement of the atoms of our ancestors!» — she shouted, describing her visions to another patient sitting at her bedside.
Hana had a complicated fate. Born in 1949, she grew up in a town south of Prague in a poor family. Her father suffered from alcoholism and her mother often beat her for wetting the bed. At school, classmates teased her for her shabby, wet clothes — she was embarrassed to ask permission to use the restroom. As a teenager, she was lonely, angry, and tormented at night by vivid dreams of killing her enemies. At 18, she married a strange guy, broke up four months later and attempted suicide by swallowing 30 sleeping pills.
What followed was a series of hard labor, suicide attempts, and a stay in the Dobzhany Psychiatric Hospital, which had 2,000 patients. Despite her intelligence, she was considered hopelessly psychotic. In 1969, when she was due to return to Dobřany again, she told a doctor that it would be better to die, and he was sent to a clinic in Sadská specializing in LSD psychotherapy, run by psychiatrist Milan Hausner (1929-2000).
Initially, Hausner doubted he could help her. But after listening to a recording of her third session with Hana, he noted an archetypal regression into the deep layers of the subconscious and a new, more positive stance toward death and eternity. Within six months, Hana had undergone another 20 LSD sessions, and Dr. Hausner suggested that it would take about 60 for complete healing.
Psychiatry in communist Czechoslovakia was notable for its complexity: it was not a simple tool of Soviet counseling. To a much greater extent than is generally recognized, Czech psychiatry experimented with LSD in the 1960s, being linked to the international movement toward humane treatment. The drug served as a «probe of the subconscious» — Hausner wrote, «penetrating very deeply, sometimes into the first years of life».
While this topic is mainly traced through the writings of Grof, who began his practice in Praz, moved to the United States, and is considered the founder of transpersonal psychology, knowledge of practice in Czechoslovakia was also based on the writings of dozens of other psychiatrists. Among them was Hausner, who conducted more than 3,000 LSD sessions and published more than 100 articles and books while remaining largely unknown for his country.
Hausner grew up in Prague, the only child in a family of a lawyer and a pharmacist. In 1945, while fighting for the liberation of the city, he tended to the wounded on the Prague barricades. After the war, he enrolled at the Karlov Medical University, graduated in 1953, and worked as a psychiatrist throughout Czechoslovakia. In 1954, he first encountered LSD in the experiments of Jiri Rubicek, who became one of the first researchers of the drug. Freud said at the time that experimenting with substances was best done on oneself, and Czech doctors often practiced this. It is not known what Hausner thought of his personal experiments — he did not describe them.
In the late 1950s he began to research the use of chlorpromazine and electroconvulsive therapy, later becoming increasingly interested in psychotherapy. In 1959 he defended ideas about «materialistic» psychotherapy and focused on psychedelics, which were then being produced in Czechoslovakia. In 1956, a pharmaceutical institute applied for LSD, and in 1959 the ministry authorized its production for «experimental purposes». In 1954, British doctors reported LSD's usefulness in neurotic therapy, prompting Hausner to join forces with chemist Vladimir Dolezal to introduce LSD into therapeutic practice.
Hana had a complicated fate. Born in 1949, she grew up in a town south of Prague in a poor family. Her father suffered from alcoholism and her mother often beat her for wetting the bed. At school, classmates teased her for her shabby, wet clothes — she was embarrassed to ask permission to use the restroom. As a teenager, she was lonely, angry, and tormented at night by vivid dreams of killing her enemies. At 18, she married a strange guy, broke up four months later and attempted suicide by swallowing 30 sleeping pills.
What followed was a series of hard labor, suicide attempts, and a stay in the Dobzhany Psychiatric Hospital, which had 2,000 patients. Despite her intelligence, she was considered hopelessly psychotic. In 1969, when she was due to return to Dobřany again, she told a doctor that it would be better to die, and he was sent to a clinic in Sadská specializing in LSD psychotherapy, run by psychiatrist Milan Hausner (1929-2000).
Initially, Hausner doubted he could help her. But after listening to a recording of her third session with Hana, he noted an archetypal regression into the deep layers of the subconscious and a new, more positive stance toward death and eternity. Within six months, Hana had undergone another 20 LSD sessions, and Dr. Hausner suggested that it would take about 60 for complete healing.
Psychiatry in communist Czechoslovakia was notable for its complexity: it was not a simple tool of Soviet counseling. To a much greater extent than is generally recognized, Czech psychiatry experimented with LSD in the 1960s, being linked to the international movement toward humane treatment. The drug served as a «probe of the subconscious» — Hausner wrote, «penetrating very deeply, sometimes into the first years of life».
While this topic is mainly traced through the writings of Grof, who began his practice in Praz, moved to the United States, and is considered the founder of transpersonal psychology, knowledge of practice in Czechoslovakia was also based on the writings of dozens of other psychiatrists. Among them was Hausner, who conducted more than 3,000 LSD sessions and published more than 100 articles and books while remaining largely unknown for his country.
Hausner grew up in Prague, the only child in a family of a lawyer and a pharmacist. In 1945, while fighting for the liberation of the city, he tended to the wounded on the Prague barricades. After the war, he enrolled at the Karlov Medical University, graduated in 1953, and worked as a psychiatrist throughout Czechoslovakia. In 1954, he first encountered LSD in the experiments of Jiri Rubicek, who became one of the first researchers of the drug. Freud said at the time that experimenting with substances was best done on oneself, and Czech doctors often practiced this. It is not known what Hausner thought of his personal experiments — he did not describe them.
In the late 1950s he began to research the use of chlorpromazine and electroconvulsive therapy, later becoming increasingly interested in psychotherapy. In 1959 he defended ideas about «materialistic» psychotherapy and focused on psychedelics, which were then being produced in Czechoslovakia. In 1956, a pharmaceutical institute applied for LSD, and in 1959 the ministry authorized its production for «experimental purposes». In 1954, British doctors reported LSD's usefulness in neurotic therapy, prompting Hausner to join forces with chemist Vladimir Dolezal to introduce LSD into therapeutic practice.
His interest in LSD grew, and in the 1960s he began actively introducing it for psychotherapy. In 1956, LSD began to be mass-produced in Czechoslovakia, and studies showed that the drug induced regression, flashbacks, and epiphanies — similar to those of its Western counterparts.
The psychiatric clinic in Sadska became the center of the experiments. There, they set up a project with therapists using LSD to treat neuroses, psychosomatic and sexual disorders. Hausner and his team conducted about 3,000 sessions in which patients received doses ranging from 50 to 300 mcg, and most showed improvement. This attracted Westerners, and in 1964 Grof, Havlicek and Gross brought their ideas to Prague. However, the Western panic — about drug abuse and insanity — did not escape the Czech Republic.
The state became concerned, and in 1966 they began inspections. At the same time, Hausner declared that LSD was a «probe of the subconscious mind», allowing for a deep exploration of memory and personality. There were discussions about the metodología of therapy: some thought it was important to achieve transcendental states, others thought it was narcissistic and «American divorce». In 1967, Grof proposed integrating approaches, but the Soviets suppressed the Prague Spring in 1968, and Havlicek died of leukemia.
In 1970, Hana K. came to Sadska. She underwent four months of group therapy, began working with LSD and made new friends. After 22 sessions, Dr. Hausner decided to hook her up with a group psychedelic session — and she felt that she now understood and felt others better. She wrote, «I am beginning to understand and connect with people, and I don't hate them anymore!»
In a situation of political instability, after the Soviet invasion, Hausner continued therapy and brought in foreign specialists. More and more foreign psychologists came to the clinic to try LSD and speed up treatment. In the 1970s, group "psycholytic marathons» were practiced, every third or fourth weekend — about 40 patients took turns in sessions to save government money. Hausner published articles, reported on efficacy, and official authorities still restricted his activities: in 1974, expired vials of LSD were found, and he apologized, but there was no reason to say the drug was harmful or being abused.
In recent years, interest in psychedelics has been revitalized. The Czech Republic has begun to study psilocybin, and private clinics with new approaches have been set up. Hausner's archives — his letters, files, art — are closed to the public, but his book on psychedelic therapy has finally been published. About nine patients and psychologists recalled his work — most noted that LSD did not speed up therapy, and sometimes even made it more difficult, time-consuming and demanding. Some patients were satisfied with the result, others — on the contrary. Hana K., who successfully completed therapy, got married and became a mother, and her words today — «home, good people — I never had that before» — say that she believes that LSD treatment gave her a chance to start over, although it is not clear whether it was even as successful without the drug.