Foucault on drugs : the personal, the ethical and the political in Foucault in California

Abstract

Foucault’s ‘LSD story’ is popular among anyone who knows a thing or two about the French philosopher. Foucault dropped a tab of acid, the story goes, with Simeon Wade, an assistant professor at Claremont Graduate School, and Michael Stoneman, a pianist and Wade’s partner, at the Zabriskie Point of Death Valley in California in May 1975. The three ‘authoritative’ biographies of Foucault (and the implications of writing a biography of Foucault are discussed below) – Didier Eribon’s 1989 Michel Foucault, David Macey’s 1993 The Lives of Michel Foucault and, especially, James Miller’s 1993 The Passion of Michel Foucault – all refer to this LSD episode.