Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 19, 2024
Eric Steinhart
Abstract Spirituality at least requires learning, accepting, and adapting to ultimate reality. Although psychedelic experiences are thought to facilitate these aspects of spirituality, those experiences are only related to ultimate reality by way of interpretations. This chapter uses naturalism to evaluate three interpretations. The first interpretation, which is religious, says that...
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
David B. Yaden, Sandeep M. Nayak, Roland R. Griffiths
4 citations
Abstract The proportion of people who change their metaphysical beliefs after psychedelic experiences is not yet known with specificity. However, it appears that belief changes can occur in some cases, and evidence more precisely estimating the prevalence and magnitude of such belief changes is accruing. The evidence for metaphysical belief changes is reviewed and the potential psychological...
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Link Ray Swanson
2 citations
Abstract The visual effects of psychedelic drugs are well known but not well understood. This chapter aims to situate psychedelic visual phenomenology within the context of what we know about everyday visual perception. Three types of open-eye visuals—common alterations to external visual appearances under psychedelic drugs—are described, and it is argued that they are caused by...
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Chris Letheby, Philip Gerrans
1 citation
Abstract The chapter undertakes three main tasks. The first is to review, briefly, the history of psychedelics in psychiatry, including the phenomenological and behavioural effects that first led to their being studied for therapeutic purposes. The second is to give an overview of recent research into the safety, efficacy, and therapeutic mechanisms of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. The...
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Virginia Ballesteros
1 citation
Abstract This chapter provides a philosophical account of the potential of the psychedelic experience to treat depression. The main thesis is that such a potential lies in the possibility of psychedelics allowing us to experience a world diametrically opposed to that of depression: the psychedelic experience can be world-shifting. Building on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s insights and notions of...
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Raphaël Millière
Abstract This chapter examines the debate on the phenomenology of body ownership—the putative experience of one’s body as one’s own. Proponents argue that this phenomenology exists and that it explains reports from pathological conditions and bodily illusions, but these reports face interpretative challenges. In this chapter, drug-induced experiences wherein subjects report ‘disownership’ of...
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Philip Gerrans
Abstract Daniel Dennett famously argued that the self is a ‘centre of narrative gravity’. In fact, the self is best thought of as a centre of interoceptive gravity whose homeostatic and affective experiences are subsequently interpreted and communicated in a narrative. This idea explains feelings of persistence and unity in the normal case and changed nature of self-awareness in psychedelic...
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Samir Chopra, Chris Letheby
Abstract Several authors have recently suggested that classic psychedelics might be safe and effective agents of moral enhancement. This raises the question: can we learn anything interesting about the nature of moral experience from a close examination of transformative psychedelic experiences? The interdisciplinary enterprise of philosophical psychopathology attempts to learn about the...
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Thomas Metzinger
Abstract The ‘enculturation problem’ is the problem of how to integrate the psychedelic experience into culture and societal practice, in a way that is rational, evidence-based, and ethically convincing. In a first-order approximation, the enculturation problem can be framed as a problem for applied ethics and policy-making: How can the psychedelic experience be culturally integrated in a way...
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Jaipreet Mattu, Jacqueline Sullivan
Abstract In the last decade alone, preliminary evidence has suggested that classic psychedelics (CPs) can rapidly and durably ameliorate symptoms and cognitive deficits associated with depression. However, the mechanisms by which CPs work in the brain are not well understood. Rodent translational research, in which experimental findings from rodents are used to understand the human brain, is...
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Anna Ciaunica, Adam Safron
Abstract This chapter examines the feeling of ‘losing’ the sense of familiarity with one’s self and body in depersonalization and psychedelic experiences through an ‘active inference’ lens. It is suggested that psychedelic-induced experiences may involve a stance with radically altered prior expectations, providing opportunities for flexibly modulating self- and world models. Specifically,...