With his shock of white hair and devilish grin, and surrounded by ancient-looking beakers and intricately labeled brown bottles in the laboratory he built in his backyard shed, chemist Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin does somewhat resemble the mad scientist you might imagine as the “Godfather of Ecstasy,” a.k.a. “Dr. E.” But at the same time, Shulgin’s quiet life in California seems worlds away from the rave culture spawned by the drug with which he is associated. And, as Shulgin is quick to point out, he did not even invent MDMA (Ecstasy’s clinical name); he only discovered and popularized its effects. Either way, Shulgin’s ongoing research into therapeutic uses for psychedelic drugs—which he primarily tests on himself and his wife, Ann, a “lay therapist”—has earned him a notorious reputation.
DIRTY PICTURES is, on one level, a portrait of Shulgin; however, it is also a more comprehensive look at current research on mind-altering drugs, contrasting the Shulgins’ unconventional methods with more institutionalized university studies. Whether conventional or radical, such research not only suggests possible improvements in the treatment of anxiety and depression, but it also raises a set of shared questions: What is the nature of and potential for empathy? Can we make deeper, more open connections with the world? What is the mind? The soul? Shulgin and his colleagues may come to different conclusions, but the debate is undeniably fascinating.
—Kristina Aikens
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