Review: 'The Politics of Ecstasy' by Timothy Leary

Originally published in 1968 'The Politics of Ecstasy' is a collection of essays by, and interviews with, psychedelic troubadour Timothy Leary. The book contains Leary’s central ideas for the Sixties psychedelic revolution; both social and scientific. Arguably less well received than 'The Psychedelic Experience', it is in fact a much more insightful perspective on both the man and his beliefs and conveys many, still important, observations on society.

The summer of love is over. Post-India visits, the Millbrook bubble has all but burst. ‘The Politics of Ecstasy’ is the product of a transient decade dominated in one respect by the psychedelic theories of one man, namely Timothy Leary. This book is the culmination of an adventure he has undergone; through the social, scientific and political elements of a decade fraught with change. There lies within the words a certain desperation to try and formulate his own methods for change; yet, not withstanding the historicism, there is cohesion in the thoughts of this book.