Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of drugs. Throughout history people have taken them to alter their perceptions and change their moods. The attractions lie in the promise of instant pleasure and the possibility of heightened perceptions. Nietzsche said that no art could exist without intoxication and believed that a dream-like state was an essential precondition to superior vision and understanding. But artists and writers from De Quincey to Coleridge to Huxley have found drugs to be both a creative and a destructive force in their lives and work. Coleridge said in his poem about opium: Fantastic Passions! Maddening Brawl! And shame and terror over all! The world of drugs is a topsy-turvy world of ambivalence and paradox: a world of clarity and confusion; stimulation and stupefaction; medicine and poison; vitality and death.Can drugs really stimulate creativity? What is the impact of drugs on the body? And what role have narcotics and stimulants played in the history of medicine? With Richard Davenport-Hines, historian and author of The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics; Sadie Plant, author of Writing on Drugs; Mike Jay, historian and author of Emperors of Dreams, Drugs in the Nineteenth Century.
Transcript
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| 0:46.2 | you enjoy the program. |
| 0:48.2 | Hello throughout history people have taken drugs to all to their perceptions and change |
| 0:52.2 | their moods the attractions lie in the promise of and Nietzsche said that no art could exist without intoxication. |
| 1:03.8 | He believed that a dream-like state was an essential precondition to superior vision and |
| 1:08.0 | understanding. |
| 1:09.2 | Scientists such as Humphrey Davy experimented with drugs, so did Freud. But artists and writers from |
| 1:14.9 | the Quincy to Coleridge to Huxley have found drugs to be both a creative and a |
| 1:18.8 | destructive force in their lives and work. Coleridge said in his poem about opium, |
| 1:23.2 | Fantastic passions, maddening brawl and shame and terror overall. |
| 1:28.8 | The world of drugs is a world of ambivalence and paradox. |
| 1:32.0 | It's a world of clarity and confusion, |
| 1:34.3 | stimulation and stupefaction, medicine and poison, vitality and death. Can drugs really |
| 1:40.0 | stimulate creativity? That's what we're going to talk about. |
| 1:42.8 | What's the impact of drugs on the mind? |
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