Aldous Huxley predicts Adderall and champions alternative therapies

Summary

If delivered today, the last of Huxley’s 7-part lecture series at MIT would probably be categorised under motivational talks or self-help strategies. It surveys the various under-explored non-pharmacological means to realise the best versions of ourselves. Or, as he calls it, actualising our desirable potentialities. Some fairly well known means for self-actualisation that Huxley discusses are Alexander technique and Gestalt therapy. While the former is considered a pseudoscientific therapyI am not using this as a pejorative, for a change., Huxley tells us of the influential educator John Dewey’s admiration of F.M. Alexander’s work. He paraphrases Dewey’s foreword in one of Alexander’s books: Alexander’s technique is to education what education is to life, in general. It proposes an ideal and provides means whereby that ideal can be realised. Aldous Huxley paraphrasing John Dewey While this is mentioned much later in his lecture, a Huxley-like figure today might need to lead their lecture with this part to convey the import and validity of such approaches. Huxley doesn’t really go into the details of why or how this is true but admittedly admires Alexander’s contribution. I have a friend who swears by it for enhancing their dance practice though I have not been able to grok what it does so far—it sounds a lot like what meditation does in terms of raising awareness. Huxley believes that such practices are effective at psychologically breeding in desirable qualities in a person instead of: genetically breeding out undesirable ones; or pharmacologically enhancing our intellectual abilities—i.e., improved attention spans or reduced sleep—to increase our mental efficiency. Here, Huxley predicts the emergence of Adderall though I was less impressed by his forecasting euphoric pharmaceuticals. After all, this lecture was delivered several years after the publication of The Doors of Perception. The underlying efficiency gains from these psychological approaches happen, he c...