Ronald A. Sandison

Ronald Arthur Sandison (1 April 1916 – 18 June 2010) was a British psychiatrist and psychotherapist. Among his other work, he is particularly noted for his pioneering studies and use of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) as a psychotheraputic drug. As a consultant psychiatrist, his LSD work was mainly carried out during the 1950s and '60s at Powick Hospital, a large psychiatric facility near Malvern, Worcestershire, after which he spent several years in Southampton, where he was instrumental in the establishment of the university medical school. He returned to his native Shetland Isles in the 1970s and worked in psychotherapy there. He later specialised in psychosexual medicine on the UK mainland. Sandison died at the age of 94, and was buried in Ledbury near Malvern.

Education and early work Sandison was born in Shetland, a group of islands 170 km (110 mi) northeast of the Scottish mainland. When he was still a baby his father moved from Shetland to London where as a civil servant he was in charge of ancient monuments. Sandison attended the independent school of King's College School in Wimbledon, a feeder school for King's College London, a public research university. He began pre-clinical studies in 1934 and was awarded a scholarship to study medicine at King's College Hospital in London, qualifying with a MBBS in 1940. In 1952 during a visit to Switzerland, he came in contact with Albert Hofmann at Sandoz, who had discovered the effects of hallucinogenic drug LSD by accident. He returned to the UK with 100 vials of LSD, called 'Delysid' at that time by Sandoz. While in Powick he created a local branch of the Samaritans in the nearby city of Worcester. In an interview with Sandison, author and investigative journalist Dominic Streatfeild in research for his 2006 book Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control, reveals: "Dr Sandison was a huge help to me when I was researching ‘Brainwash’ and we spoke many times. I thought he was a wonderful, wonderful man." In 1970 the Home Office reported that there was no evidence for limiting the use of LSD for medicinal purposes.

Later work Sandison moved on to work at Knowle Hospital, a former psychiatric facility near Southampton which closed in 1996. Intent on maintaining medical psychotherapy as part of the National Health Service (NHS), Sandison stimulated hospital doctors undergoing training as specialists to take a diploma in psychotherapy, and encouraging students to enroll at the new University of Southampton School of Medicine which he helped to create. Ronald Sandison. (1953). 'Psychological Disturbance and Artistic Creation'. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. Vol. 117, No. 4. p. 320. Sandison, R. A., et al. (1954). 'The therapeutic value of lysergic acid diethylamide in mental illness'. Journal of Mental Science. 100: 491–507. (Summary) Sandison, R. A. & Whitelaw, J. D. A. (1957). 'Further studies of the therapeutic value of lysergic acid diethylamide in mental illness'. Journal of Mental Science. 103: 332–343. (Summary) Ronald Sandison (1991). LSD: Its Rise, Fall and Enduring Value. A New Perspective. Albert Hofmann Foundation Bulletin. Vol. 2. No. 1. p. 8. Ronald Sandison (1997). 'LSD Therapy: A Retrospective', in Psychedelia Britannica: Hallucinogenic Drugs in Britain, edited by Antonio Melechi. Turnaround, London. Ronald Sandison (1998) 'Memory and Psychotherapy: Individual and Group', Group Analysis, 27(4): 395–406. Vol 31, Issue 1, 1998, DOI: 10.1177/0533316498311007 Ronald Sandison In-Tide-Out: The Autobiography of a Psychiatrist and Analytical Psychotherapist. (Unpublished undated autobiography from 2000s)