Reframing Bummer Trips: Scientific and Cultural Explanations to Adverse Reactions to Psychedelic Drug Use
The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs August 20, 2020 DOI: 10.1086/707512 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Anxiety |
| Keywords | Trips architecture Harm Criminology Cognitive reframing Public health Psychotherapist |
| Citations | 28 |
| Key points | Argues that the specter of the bad trip was used strategically to galvanize public support for a prohibition on psychedelics, and that removing psychedelics from research moved psychotherapy away from addressing fear and trauma through confrontation. |
Abstract
The concept of a bad or bummer trip has been used to capture the imagination of public health advisors and drug regulators, especially for producing warnings against taking drugs that cause physical and psychological harm. Psychedelics emerged in the 1960s public health literature as frequently causing bad trips, with violent and fearful outbursts from users causing harm to themselves and others. The fear and anxiety allegedly generated by a chemical reaction in the body, however, was understood differently by contemporary psychedelic scientists in the 1950s and 1960s. Confronting fear or facing trauma played an important role in psychotherapy, and psychedelic therapists offered an alternative interpretation on the bad trip that imbued it with healthful benefits. This article considers the historical tension surrounding the competing interpretations of bummer trips, probing more deeply into the implications of avoiding fear, trauma, or anxiety in the psychotherapeutic encounter. Ultimately, by considering cases presented at different psychedelic clinics in North America and comparing those with news, personal testimonies, and regulatory outcomes in the United States, we argue that the specter of the bad trip was used strategically to galvanize public support for a prohibition on psychedelics. Moreover, by removing psychedelics from active research, the field of psychotherapy in some jurisdictions moved away from addressing core ideas about fear and trauma through confrontation.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on anxiety, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychedelics as Medicines: An Emerging New Paradigm General population | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Learning to Let Go: A Cognitive-Behavioral Model of How Psychedelic Therapy Promotes Acceptance | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Taking Psychedelics Seriously | 2018 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How could MDMA (ecstasy) help anxiety disorders? A neurobiological rationale | 2009 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Embedding existential psychology within psychedelic science: reduced death anxiety as a mediator of the therapeutic effects of psychedelics | 2019 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 20
- Importance of Integrating Spiritual, Existential, Religious, and Theological Components in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies. JAMA Psychiatry July 1, 2023
- Motives for the use of serotonergic psychedelics: A systematic review. Drug and Alcohol Review September 1, 2022
- The Psychedelic Integration Scales: Tools for Measuring Psychedelic Integration Behaviors and Experiences Frontiers in Psychology May 23, 2022
- Restructuring insight: An integrative review of insight in problem-solving, meditation, psychotherapy, delusions and psychedelics November 26, 2021
- Psychedelic Experiences During the Early COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings From an International Online Survey Frontiers in Psychiatry November 4, 2021
and 15 more in the library