page_title: Timothy Leary
section_title: In popular culture
hierarchical_section_title: Timothy Leary / In popular culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Recording "Give Peace a Chance". Left to right: Rosemary Leary ( face not visible), Tommy Smothers (with back to camera), John Lennon, Timothy Leary, Yoko Ono, Judy Marcioni and Paul Williams
context_page_description: Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from bold oracle to publicity hound. He was "a hero of American consciousness," according to Allen Ginsberg, and Tom Robbins called him a "brave neuronaut." But to Louis Menand, it was a put-on: "The only things Leary was serious about were pleasure and renown." Leary was not a seeker of truth, according to Menand: "He liked women, he liked being the center of attention, and he liked to get high."
  As a clinical psychologist at Harvard University, Leary worked on the Harvard Psilocybin Project from 1960–62, resulting in the Concord Prison Experiment and the Marsh Chapel Experiment. The scientific legitimacy and ethics of his research were questioned by other Harvard faculty because he took psychedelics along with research subjects and pressured students to join in. Leary and his colleague, Richard Alpert, were fired from Harvard University in May 1963. Most people first heard of psychedelics after the Harvard scandal.
  Leary believed that LSD showed potential for therapeutic use in psychiatry.
caption: Leary, John Lennon, Yoko Ono and others recording "Give Peace A Chance".
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