Abstract. Robert Silverberg’s volume Drug themes in science fiction (Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1974) delves into the SF literature published in the 1960s through the 1970s as part of a research series for the National Institute on Drug Abuse in California. Silverberg makes a survey of the SF works published for almost two decades and brings to light the way drug themes infiltrated the genre. The author looks at the evolution of these themes in the SF field between 1959 and 1974, then further compares the variety of approaches to the use of drugs and their perception as the society of the U.S. passed through several upheavals in the 1960s and 1970s. The following is a brief review of Silverberg’s examination of drug themes in the SF literature: 1) what forms drug themes take in the fictions he explores; 2) what impacts drug themes have in the science-fictional societies at large; 3) what effects drug themes have on the minds and lives of the science-fictional characters; 4) how drug themes impact the real individual’s consciousness and perception of reality; 5) how drug themes affect the real society, and sometimes even the real humanity at large.

Key Words: science fiction; drugs; psychedelics; American literature; consciousness; the nature of reality

Asaftei L (2024) Robert Silverberg on drug themes in SF: toward an expansion of consciousness? Creativity 7(1): 209–214. doi:10.22381/C7120245