Hoffer, Abram (1917-)

Psychiatrist who studied the effect of psychedelic drugs on human consciousness. Hoffer was born on November 11, 1917, in Saskatchewan, Canada. He studied successively at the University of Saskatchewan (B.S., 1938; M.S., 1940), the University of Minnesota (Ph.D., 1944), and the University of Toronto (M.D., 1945). After graduation he took a position as director of psychiatric research in the Psychiatric Services Branch, Department of Public Health, Saskatchewan.

Hoffer began work on the effects of hallucinogens in the 1950s. In 1959 he addressed the Conference on Parapsychology and Psychedelics in New York, and in the following year published, with Humphrey Osmond, the Chemical Concepts of Psychiatry (1960). He and Osmond also worked together on Hallucinogens (1967) and both contributed to Clinical and Other Uses of the Hoffer-Osmond Diagnostic Test (1975).

In the 1970s he concentrated his research on problems of nutrition. His books include How to Live with Schizophrenia (1978), Orthomolecular Nutrition (with Morton Walker, 1978), Nutrients to Age Without Senility (1980), and Ortho-Molecular Nutrition (with Morton Walker, 1981).

Sources:

Hoffer, Abram, and Humphrey Osmond. Megavitamin Therapy: In Reply to the American Psychiatric Association Task Force Report on Megavitamins and Orthomolecular Psychiatry. Regina, Sask., Canada: Canadian Schizophrenia Foundation, 1976.

Pleasants, Helene, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology. New York: Helix Press, 1964.