Leary's Beginning

Leary graduated in 1950 from Harvard, receive a P.H.d in psychology. Leary then went on the become director of psychiatric research at the Kaiser Family Foundation from 1950 to 1955. Leary's beginning work in psychology focused on interpersonal exploration, in order to diagnose certain personalities and patterns. Leary went on to develop an well respected diagnostic tool called the interpersonal circumplex - this tool was used in the MMPI survey that many respected psychologists, and social workers use to this day. In 1955 Leary's wife committed suicide - At this point Leary began developing a new outlook on life. Before Leary began experimenting with mushrooms and other hallucinogens he wrote

"an anonymous institutional employee who drove to work each morning in a long line of commuter cars and drove home each night and drank martinis ... like several million middle-class, liberal, intellectual robots."

At this point Leary began searching for more unconventional means of spiritual, and clinical practices.

Leary's wife's death probably shook him up to the point that he felt the need to reconsider his whole life. Some of the internal changes may have included
questioning societal tendencies through his P.H.d mind. This is when Leary started developing his revolutionary state of mind. The quote above proves that his mind is transforming in to a rebellious middle age man!