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Guide to the Betty Grover Eisner Papers
SC0924
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Table of contents
Call Number: SC0924
Creator:
Eisner, Betty Grover, 1915-2004.
Creator:
Eisner, Willard D.
Title: Betty Grover Eisner papers
Dates: 1927-2002
Physical Description:
10 Linear feet
Summary: 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(s): The materials are in English.
Repository:
Dept. of Special Collections & University Archives.
Stanford University Libraries.
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305
Email: speccollref@stanford.edu
Phone: (650) 725-1022
URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc
Gift of Betty Grover Eisner, 2001.
With the exception of Series 2 and the world trip materials in Series 1, access to the collection is restricted. Please contact
the University Archivist for information.
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.
[Identification of item], Betty Grover Eisner Papers, SC 0924. Stanford University Archives, Stanford, Calif.
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.
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.
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.
Cohen, Sidney, 1910-1987.
Denber, Herman C. B., (Herman Cecil B.), 1917-
Eisner, Betty Grover, 1915-2004.
Eisner, Willard D.
Hofmann, Albert, 1906-2008
Krishnamurti, J., (Jiddu), 1895-1986
Nin, Anaïs, 1903-1977
Sandison, Ronald
Terman, Lewis Madison, 1877-1956
Articles.
Correspondence.
Group psychoanalysis
Group psychotherapy
LSD (Drug)--Therapeutic use
Psychoanalysis
Psychologists
Psychotherapy
sound recordings