Socio-psychedelic imaginaries: envisioning and building legal psychedelic worlds in the United States
European Journal of Futures Research April 30, 2022 DOI: 10.1186/s40309-022-00199-2 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Ethnography Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | US-American individuals and groups involved in psychedelic reintegration efforts |
| Duration | 3 years |
| Topics | Psilocybin |
| Keywords | The imaginary Legalization Politics Decriminalization Disenchantment Hallucinogen Criminology Law Psychoanalysis |
| Citations | 36 |
| Key findings | Four socio-psychedelic imaginaries—biomedicalization, decriminalization, legalization, and sacramental—are co-evolving and mutually shaping each other as a societal corrective to psychedelic prohibition. |
Abstract
Abstract After decades of criminalization, psychedelic substances such as psilocybin and LSD are experiencing their comeback in science and Western culture more broadly. While psychedelic plants and fungi have a long history of use in Indigenous cultures, the Western prohibitionist reality instantiated around 1970 has stigmatized psychedelics as medically useless and a threat to society. Yet studies are increasingly demonstrating their potential to treat widespread mental health conditions such as PTSD, depression, or anxiety in combination with psychotherapy. Most of this research is currently taking place in the US, where additionally decriminalization and legalization efforts and religious exemptions have paved the way to make psychedelics legally accessible. Based on 3 years of ethnographic research in the US (both in-person and virtual), this article explores contemporary US-American socio-psychedelic imaginaries, i.e., collective visions articulated and enacted to reintegrate psychedelics legally and responsibly into society. Four socio-psychedelic imaginaries are identified, described, and interpreted: the biomedicalization imaginary, decriminalization imaginary, legalization imaginary, and sacramental imaginary. These imaginaries diverge and converge around several politics: politics of access, politics of responsibility, politics of naming, politics of assimilation and social change, and politics of epistemic credibility. Contemporary socio-psychedelic imaginaries are co-evolving, mutually shaping, and amplifying each other. Together they function as societal corrective to the politically motivated prohibition of psychedelics. Although enacted by humans, the radical imagination expressed in socio-psychedelic imaginaries has its roots in human-psychedelics entanglements.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on psilocybin, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patients’ Accounts of Increased “Connectedness” and “Acceptance” After Psilocybin for Treatment-Resistant Depression Patients with treatment-resistant depression enrolled in an open-label trial of psilocybin | 2017 | Qualitative study | n = 20 |
| Patient Experiences of Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Adults aged 22 to 69 with clinically elevated anxiety associated with a cancer diagnosis | 2017 | Qualitative study | n = 13 |
| Psychedelic therapy for smoking cessation: Qualitative analysis of participant accounts Participants who completed a psilocybin-facilitated smoking cessation pilot study | 2018 | Qualitative follow-up study using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis | n = 12 |
| Response of cluster headache to psilocybin and LSD Cluster headache patients who used psilocybin or LSD | 2006 | Qualitative study | n = 53 |
| Cancer at the Dinner Table: Experiences of Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy for the Treatment of Cancer-Related Distress Adult participants with clinically elevated anxiety associated with a cancer diagnosis | 2017 | Qualitative study using interpretative phenomenological analysis | n = 13 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 26
- Distinctive But Not Exceptional: The Risks of Psychedelic Ethical Exceptionalism. The American Journal of Bioethics 2025
- Decolonization is a metaphor towards a different ethic. The case from psychedelic studies Interdisciplinary Science Reviews September 27, 2022
- When the Trial Ends: The Case for Post-Trial Provisions in Clinical Psychedelic Research Neuroethics November 6, 2023
- Acceptability of psilocybin‐assisted group therapy in patients with cancer and major depressive disorder: Qualitative analysis Cancer December 18, 2023
- Cyberdelics in context: On the prospects and challenges of mind-manifesting technologies. Frontiers in Psychology 2022
and 21 more in the library
Cites 18
- Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance Psychopharmacology July 7, 2006
- Psilocybin occasioned mystical-type experiences: immediate and persisting dose-related effects. Psychopharmacology December 1, 2011
- The psychedelic renaissance and the limitations of a White-dominant medical framework: A call for indigenous and ethnic minority inclusion Journal of Psychedelic Studies July 1, 2019
- Making psychedelics into medicines: The politics and paradoxes of medicalization Journal of Psychedelic Studies July 30, 2019
- Containment Matters: Set and Setting in Contemporary Psychedelic Psychiatry Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 2021
and 13 more in the library