Timothy Leary

Timothy Leary was a psychologist and prolofic author who is most widely known as an advocate for the use of psychodelic drugs amongst Americans, making him an extremely controversial figure.  This is despite being heralded as an up and coming influencer in the field of psychology during his early career. Leary was particularly lauded for his work in personality theory, particularly *Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality* which credited in the 1958 *Annual Review of Psychology* as the most important clincal work that year.  It wasn't until Leary was let go from Harvard University after supervising their program studying the effects of psilocybin that he became a polarizing actor.

### Background

Timothy Francis Leary Jr. was born in Springfield Massachusetts to Timothy and Abigail Leary. He graduated Springfield Classical High School in 1938 after which he briefly attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point before dropping out his first year. Leary then enrolled at the University of Alabama where his studies were interrupted by military service. He completed his degree via courses at Ohio State University. Leary then recieved his masters degree in psychology from Washinton State University and his PhD from University of California Berkley in 1950.

Leary then maintained a number of positions in the field of psychology; he was a member of the psychology department at The Kaiser Hospital, and assistant professor at the University of California San Francisco, as well as a consultant. In 1960, Leary was accepted to a faculty position at Harvard University but was let go likely due to widespread suspicion that he had been promoting the use of psychadelics amongst students and was actively taking them with research subjects in his capacity as a researcher Role of Psychedelics in Psychology.

It is at this point where Leary transitions from a just a psychologist to a cultural phenomenon. Shortly after his time at Harvard, Leary, with his collegue Richard Alpert, began a commune centering arround the use of hallucinogens and began writing psychadelic literature. Leary quickly permiated pop culture, appearing off broadway, in front of congress, and in numerous pop songs. Leary then ended up serving a 10 year prison sentence for marijuana possession, but was broken out of jail in a joint effort by The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and The Weather Underground. Afterward he was sheltered by the Black Panthers in Algeria, went to Switzerland, and was apprehended for entering Afghanistan at which point he was forced to serve out the rest of his sentence.  It was also during this time when Leary formulated the eight circuit model of conciousness, partially while in prison, in collaboration with Brian Barret and his wife, at the time, Joanna Leary.

### Eight Circuit Model of Conciousness

Published in 1973, Leary's *Neruologic,* in which he outlines his eight circuit model of consciousness came firmly within a time when he had been written off as a popular icon and was no longer considered by the mainstream to be a pscyhologist of any true rigor. Most viewed Leary's expulsion from Harvard in 1963 as a formal breaking point in his career, after which his life centered around drugs and anti-establishment rhetoric. This work as well as *Hedonisitic Psychology* show that Leary had not truly left behind his roots in research. While the book is not structured taditionally in that it does not draw from prior literature or contemprary theories, Leary uses recognizable psychology orietned language in describing core concepts and structures his theory in a speculative but recognizably psychological way.
Leary's eight circuit model of consciousness is a stage based theory that describes our expanding conscousness and makes speculation regarding future work. Leary himself desrcibes this work as science fiction in that his findings are based upon emprical findings from a nuumber of fields but fall far outside the bounds of the natural sciences making them inherently subjective. In *Neurologic,* Leary segments the human lifespan into 8 circuits describing different stages of maturation. These "circuits" are in reference to nervous system development. The eight stages include:

1. **The Bio-Vegetative Circuit:** concerned with safety and space
2. **The Emotional-Locomotion Circuit:** concerned with freedom in space
3. **The Mental-Manipulative Circuit:** concerned with dexterity in space
4. **The Sexual-Social Circuit:** concerned with parenthood and child-rearing
5. **The Rapture Circuit:** concerned with body time
6. **The Ecstasy Circuit:** concerned with nerological time
7. **The Neruogenetic Circuit:** concerned with the life time of the species
8. **Neuro-Atomic Metaphysiology:** concerned with quantum consciousness or non-local awareness

At each stage Leary describes an imprint being taken which determines the qualitative direction of each newly achieved circuit. For example the first imprint associated with the Bio-Vegetative circuit occurs within days of birth and invovles an infants perception of its mother. If the infant is imprints the mother as a frightening figure as opposed to safe and secure then stimuli realted to the mother figure will be seen as dangerous. At this point Leary appears to draw from traditional psycho analysis and his writing feels qualitative similar to attachment theory among other paradigms. Although Leary's clinical specultion becomes subtantially more radical. He then describes "first circuit schyzophrenia as a simple matter of a child having imprinted other humans as dangerous, the solution to which is to re-imprint this child by having them ingest L.S.D and while their parental figure provides them with warm and nurturing stimuli.

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Mansnerus, L. (1996, June 1). *Timothy Leary, Pied Piper Of Psychedelic 60’s, Dies at 75*. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/01/us/timothy-leary-pied-piper-of-psychedelic-60-s-dies-at-75.html
2. ↑ Strack, S. (1996). Introduction to the Special Series—Interpersonal Theory and the Interpersonal Circumplex: Timothy Leary’s Legacy. *Journal of Personality Assessment*, *66*(2), 212–216. https://doi-org.williamjames.idm.oclc.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa6602\_1
3. ↑ Timothy Leary papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library
4. ↑ Gillespie, N. G. (2006, June 14). *Psychedelic, Man*. Washingtonpost.Com. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/14/AR2006061402139.html
5. ↑ Wilson, Robert Anton (1983). *Prometheus Rising*. Falcon Press.
6. ↑ Devonis, D. C. (2012). Timothy Leary’s mid‐career shift: Clean break or inflection point? *Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences*, *48*(1), 16–39. https://doi-org.williamjames.idm.oclc.org/10.1002/jhbs.21518
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Leary, T. M., & Leary, J. M. (1973). *Neurologic*. Joanna Leary.