Empowerment at the Heart of Psychedelic Care

Despite being classified as dangerous substances with no therapeutic value under the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, psychedelics have seen a resurgence of interest in psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and psychology. Based on 14 interviews with psychiatrists, psychologists, psychoanalysts, and psychedelic guides, this chapter examines how and under what conditions these professionals came to consider psychedelics therapeutic. It tests the hypothesis that an essential element in the relegitimization of psychedelics lies in the ability of proponents to make their use compatible with contemporary ideals of autonomy, particularly as expressed in mental health care.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Classified by the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, coordinated by the United Nations (UN) in 1971, as dangerous substances with no real therapeutic value, psychedelics have been prohibited since that date in the United States and most European countries. However, over the last two decades there has been a resurgence of interest in them – so much so that some researchers are talking about their “revival”, particularly in disciplines that claim to work on the psyche and mind (psychiatry, psychoanalysis, psychology, etc.). This “revival” seems all the more surprising given that, in this field, psychedelics tend to be regarded as hallucinogens or psychodysleptics, in other words, as substances that cause hallucinations or delirium, respectively. Based on 14 interviews with psychiatrists, psychologists, psychoanalysts, and psychedelic “guides”, this chapter asks how and under what conditions these people came to consider the use of these substances as therapeutic. In response to this question, it tests the hypothesis that an essential element in the (re)legitimization of psychedelics lies in the ability of those who are promoting them to make their use compatible with contemporary ideals of autonomy, and in particular with the way in which these ideals are expressed in the fields of mental health care.