summary
background Recently Bram Enning published his thesis about the Leiden professor J. Bastiaans. After the Second World War Bastiaans treated resistance fighters with a controversial method that involved the use of LSD.
aim To paint a picture of Bastiaans’ career and working method and of the controversies that his method caused.
method Enning’s thesis is discussed.
results It is revealing to read how unscientific Bastiaans’ method actually was and it is shocking to see how politics did its utmost to defend his method.
conclusion The case of Bastiaans makes it clear that in our society scientific values are apparently less relevant than political and social desirability.