ABSTRACT This essay explores the enduring suspicion that psychedelic experiences are antithetical to the structural dynamic of modern societies through Hartmut Rosa's concepts of ‘resonance’ and ‘social acceleration’. Rosa's theoretical framework is particularly generative for studying the social meaning of contemporary psychedelia because it enables a link between forms of personal experience...
This essay argues for the reciprocal benefits of joining the new theories of matter emerging out of critical posthumanism and the psychedelic drugs currently experiencing a so-called “renaissance” in global north societies. While the former’s twin emphasis on relationality and embodiment is perfectly suited to capture and ground the ontological, epistemological, and ethical implications of...
In this essay, I would like to suggest that the historical transition of psychedelics from an association with counter culture to becoming part of the mains tream is related to the rise of what late cultural theorist Mark Fisher termed “capitalist realism”—the notion that there is no alternative form of social organization and, as such, capitalism simply is reality. For Fisher, the economic and...
AbstractCoinciding with and responding to a growing crisis in the diagnostic, explanatory and treatment systems of psychiatry, the last couple of decades have seen a growing amount of evidence regarding the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs to treat a variety of mental health conditions. Broadly, this crisis can be construed as that of “indivi/dualist” approaches which aim to treat...