Ego dissolution in psychedelic experience
Anatomy of an Avatar September 19, 2024 DOI: 10.1093/9780191994395.003.0007 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Ego dissolution |
| Key points | Proposes that ego dissolution from psychedelics is best understood as loss of a centre of interoceptive gravity, not as unbinding of features. |
Abstract
Abstract Users of psychedelic drugs often report that their sense of being a self or ‘I’ distinct from the rest of the world has diminished or altogether dissolved in a phenomenon known as ego dissolution (Nour et al., 2016). This is a case of transient disintegration of the self model caused by actions of serotonin 5HT2A agonists. Psychedelic experience provides a window on the nature of self representation and a chance to evaluate different accounts. On one account, the self is modelled in the same way as perceived objects—as an entity to which sensory features are bound. However, self modelling does not use the feature binding solution. This is because of differences between interoception and perception that make feature binding unsuitable as a strategy for interoceptive regulation. Ultimately, dissolution is best thought of not as the unbinding of features, but as loss of a centre of interoceptive gravity.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on ego dissolution, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self unbound: ego dissolution in psychedelic experience | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Ethics and ego dissolution: the case of psilocybin | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mystical and Other Alterations in Sense of Self: An Expanded Framework for Studying Nonordinary Experiences | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Psychedelic medicalization, public discourse, and the morality of ego dissolution | 2021 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 26
- A default mode of brain function Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences January 16, 2001
- Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self Trends in Cognitive Sciences October 12, 2013
- The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2014
- Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences January 23, 2012
- Patterns of Brain Activity Supporting Autobiographical Memory, Prospection, and Theory of Mind, and Their Relationship to the Default Mode Network Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience July 6, 2009
and 21 more in the library