Biography
Preferred Citation
Arrangement
Acquisition Information
Publication Rights
Access
Scope and Content of Collection
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Betty Grover Eisner papers
Identifier/Call Number: SC0924
Physical Description:
10 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1927-2002
Abstract: Papers documenting
Betty Grover Eisner's career in clinical psychology and experimental use of LSD and other
drugs. Includes narrative reports and audio recordings of drug therapy sessions, articles
and conference papers, book manuscripts, journals, legal documents, journals, personal and
professional correspondence, and other materials.
Language of Material:
English .
Biography
Betty Grover Eisner (1915-2004), a clinical psychologist best known for her experiments
with LSD and other psychoactive drugs, was born Helen Elizabeth Grover in Kansas City, MO.
After completing high school in Kansas City, she attended Stanford University and earned a
B.A. in political science in 1937. She volunteered with the Red Cross during World War II,
then spent a year in the late 1940s traveling Europe, Asia, and Africa with her first
husband, fellow Stanford graduate Will Eisner. She documented their trip in a series of
columns published in the
Los Angeles Times.
Eisner earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of California, Los
Angeles, in 1956. She completed her dissertation on the psychology of infertile women, but
by the time she graduated her primary professional interest had shifted to the use of LSD as
an aid to psychotherapy. She conducted LSD experiments with Dr. Sidney Cohen at a Veterans'
Administration hospital in Los Angeles, and later established a private psychotherapy
practice in Santa Monica. After psychiatric research with LSD was banned in the United
States in the late 1960s, Eisner experimented with using other drugs to promote
psychological breakthroughs in patients, including ketamine and injectable Ritalin. Other
treatments favored by Eisner included the inhalation of carbogen (a mix of 70% oxygen and
30% carbon dioxide), hot mineral baths, massage, and "blasting," a technique in which a
patient was encouraged to release hostility by yelling while muffled by a washcloth.
In 1976, one of Eisner's patients died following mineral bath treatment and blasting
therapy. A wrongful death investigation ensued, as well an ethics investigation by the
American Psychological Association. The Psychology Examining Committee of the California
Board of Medical Quality Assurance revoked Eisner's license to practice in 1978. Eisner
twice attempted to have her license restored in the early 1980s. Both attempts were
unsuccessful.
Eisner was the author of
The Unused Potential of Marriage and
Sex
, published in 1970, as well as an unpublished book based on her group therapy
work,
I Can't, You Can't, But We Can. During the late 1950s
and early 1960s, she authored several journal articles and conference papers on her use of
LSD and other drugs in psychotherapy In 2002, she wrote a memoir titled
Remembrances of LSD Therapy Past. Although unpublished, this
memoir is available on the World Wide Web. Eisner also wrote song lyrics in the 1970s under
the pseudonym Rev. B. Later in life, she wrote poetry under the name Abigail Bradbury. She
and her second husband, Bill Micks, helped to found the Center for Learning, a school for
the teaching of English in Mexico.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Betty Grover Eisner papers, (SC0924). Stanford University
Archives, Stanford, Calif.
Arrangement
The collection consists of six series: Series 1: Personal and Family Papers; Series 2:
Writing; Series 3: Correspondence; Series 4: Legal Files; Series 5: Therapy and Research
Files; and Series 6: Audio Materials.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Betty Grover Eisner, 2001.
Publication Rights
Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights reside with the creators of the
documents or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the
Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections.
Access
With the exception of Series 2, Series 3 and the world trip materials in Series 1, access
to the collection is restricted according to the Department's Access to Health Information
of Individuals Policy. Please contact the University Archivist for more information.
Scope and Content of Collection
The papers document Betty Grover Eisner's career in clinical psychology as well as the
intersection of her career with her personal life. Included are detailed narrative reports
on Eisner's use of LSD and other drugs in conjunction with psychotherapy; audio tapes of
drug sessions; numerous articles and conference papers as well as drafts of two books by
Eisner; dream journals, free association writing, and other personal writing; legal papers
and supporting documents related to an investigation of Eisner for wrongful death and the
subsequent revocation of her professional license; and professional and family
correspondence. Prominent correspondents include Sidney J. Cohen, Herman Denber, Albert
Hoffman, Krishnamurti, Anais Nin, Ron Sandison, and Lewis Terman.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Group psychoanalysis
Group psychotherapy
Psychoanalysis
Correspondence.
sound recordings
Psychotherapy
Psychologists
Articles.
LSD (Drug) -- Therapeutic use