Psychoanalytic Inquiry
September 22, 2026
Rodolfo Olivieri, Christine Avedikian, Mário Eduardo Costa Pereira et al.
Ayahuasca users often report receiving “messages” or a silent “voice” experienced as coming from an external instance that is neither the self nor other humans present. Building on Diament, Gomes, and Tófoli’s notion of a “plant third party,” we rename this phenomenon the plant third to foreground the field in which alterity is encountered. We first read the plant third through Lacanian...
Psychoanalytic Inquiry
September 8, 2026
Allen Kalpin
In recent years, researchers have demonstrated that the dissociative anesthetic ketamine provides therapeutic benefits for depression and other mental health problems, and when combined with psychotherapy, it is considered a type of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. In this article, I first review the main issues surrounding ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and then describe the psychodynamic...
Psychoanalytic Inquiry
August 28, 2026
Diana Moga
Autistic individuals are more susceptible to trauma due to higher baseline anxiety and overwhelm; poorer episodic memory; and the frequent lack of a sense of community, safety, and belonging that are both protective and needed to heal from trauma. Furthermore, many autistic adults have adopted a false self to get by in a neurotypical world and are often cut off from their affective, embodied...
Psychoanalytic Inquiry
August 25, 2026
Nathan Gorelick
This article revisits Lacan’s skepticism toward the psychoanalytic value of drug-induced altered states of consciousness in light of the contemporary surge of scientific, therapeutic, and pharmacological investment in psychedelics. Beyond any prescription, interdiction, or theoretical insight, the author shows how Lacan offers a necessary ethical corrective to the use of psychedelics within the...
Psychoanalytic Inquiry
April 20, 2026
Myriam Sauer
In this article, I am pursuing a speculative hypothesis: the work of D.W. Winnicott is shaped by a deep transfeminine yearning that is revealed as mysticist discourse. The analysis of this transfeminine discourse offers insights into the inner workings of Winnicott’s thought, and the ways in which the feminine operated in her work, both in relationship to her adamant investment in the maternal,...
Psychoanalytic Inquiry
November 17, 2022
Steven Barrie-Anthony, D. Goldin
One of the ideas animating this issue for us was that spiritual elements of experience have tended to go under-examined within psychoanalytic theory and practice. We wanted this issue to foreground spiritual dimensions, “transcendent moments” in psychoanalysis, drawing on a diverse set of psychoanalytic theories, religious traditions, and notions of the spiritual. After immersing ourselves in...
Psychoanalytic Inquiry
April 2, 2016
Soudabeh Givrad
23 citations
Dreams are a fundamental part of our lives that have fascinated and mystified people for centuries and yet there has been little consensus on their origin and function. There are some theories that emphasize the autonomous role of deeper brain structures and see dreaming as an epiphenomenon of rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep without a meaning to decipher. Other theories indicate a role in...