64 Nick Atlas
and DeWall (2015) describe alcohol in terms of “Slowed Neural
Processing,” “Memory Disruption,” and “Reduced Self-Awareness and
Self-Control” (p. 119-120).
In stark contrast to the neurological and physiological methodologies
favored throughout the remainder of their chapters, the language employed
by the authors in their respective sections on drugs—particularly in the
case of Myers and DeWall (2015)—overwhelmingly emphasizes the
subjective experience of intoxication and its detrimental effects, while
neurological explanations are relatively underrepresented. In other words,
the authors are both implicitly and explicitly discouraging drug use.
Though the authors may have their readers’ best interests at heart, the use
of such rhetoric is hardly scientific, especially in light of their pre-
established bias toward biologically-and-statistically-driven data.
More troubling is the authors’ depiction of hallucinogens and, in
particular, LSD and psilocybin. According to Meyers and DeWall (2015),
under the influence of hallucinogens people frequently “experience
dreamlike scenes so real that they may become panic-stricken or harm
themselves” (p. 124). Pastorino and Doyle-Portillo (2016) write that “On
good trips, [LSD] users experience enjoyable sensations, but bad trips
produce terrifying thoughts and feelings, including fears of insanity, death,
or losing control” (p. 165). They add that “rare yet serious documented
long-term effects of LSD are persistent psychosis and hallucinogen
persisting perception disorder,” as well as side effects such as “short-term
memory loss, paranoia, nightmares, and panic attacks” (p. 165; see also
Gold, 1994).
Despite their covert warning, Meyers and DeWall (2015) whimsically
introduce LSD as having been created by the chemist Albert Hoffman “one
Friday afternoon in April 1943” when he “accidentally ingested” the
substance while working in his lab (p. 124). In the seven lines of text they
devote to the subject—versus six paragraphs on marijuana and more than
one page each on alcohol and nicotine—the authors describe how
Hoffman’s experience “reminded him of a childhood mystical experience
that had left him longing for another glimpse of ‘a miraculous, powerful,
unfathomable reality’” (p. 125). However, in the ensuing sentence the