Exploring critical psychedelic phenomenology: What Frantz Fanon can teach us about psychedelic therapy for racialized and colonized people
Psychedelics August 15, 2026 DOI: 10.1016/j.psyche.2026.100038 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind Psychedelic-assisted therapy |
| Key points | Argues that racial-colonial trauma cannot be reduced to an individual psychosomatic disorder and that psychedelic therapy must incorporate anti-colonial theory and anti-racist praxis to address systemic racism and colonial violence. |
Abstract
Recent interdisciplinary scholarship has demonstrated how systemic racism, racialized mental health disparities, and histories of colonial and biomedical violence shape psychedelic experiences, therapeutic outcomes, and processes of integration. Emerging literature has foregrounded concerns including racial underrepresentation in research, the violent legacy of the War on Drugs, systemic racism in psychiatry, and the exploitation of Indigenous psychedelic traditions and healing practices. At the same time, clinicians and researchers have suggested that culturally informed psychedelic-assisted therapies may offer meaningful benefits for racialized individuals, particularly in addressing psychiatric symptoms linked to racial and colonial trauma. This paper contributes to this growing body of scholarship by applying Frantz Fanon’s critical phenomenology, postcolonial theory, and psychiatric critiques to contemporary psychedelic therapy discourse. I show how Fanon’s writings illuminate key tensions in the treatment of racialized peoples with psychedelic therapies. I first trace the history of racial-colonial violence embedded in the development of psychedelic biomedicine. I then apply Fanon’s critique of colonial psychiatry to MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD; arguing that racial-colonial trauma cannot be reduced to an individual psychosomatic disorder detached from colonial structures. Next, I explore the contradiction between the historical weaponization of psychedelics against racialized bodies and the contemporary therapeutic framing of psychedelics. I place this tension, and the resulting skepticism toward psychiatric institutions, in conversation with Fanon’s understanding of collective racial-colonial trauma. Finally, I address issues of positionality and double-consciousness among racialized psychedelic therapists and emphasize the necessity of anti-colonial theory and anti-racist praxis within contemporary psychedelic therapy research and practice.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on psychedelic-assisted therapy, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theorizing that Psychedelic Assisted Therapy May Play a Role in the Treatment of Trauma-Induced Personality Disorders. | 2024 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Learning to Let Go: A Cognitive-Behavioral Model of How Psychedelic Therapy Promotes Acceptance | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Awe: a putative mechanism underlying the effects of classic psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy | 2018 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Ethical and legal issues in psychedelic harm reduction and integration therapy | 2021 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Towards psychedelic apprenticeship: Developing a gentle touch for the mediation and validation of psychedelic-induced insights and revelations. | 2022 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 18
- Constructing drug effects: A history of set and setting Drug Science, Policy and Law 2017
- Inclusion of people of color in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: a review of the literature BMC Psychiatry July 31, 2018
- 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
- Ethical principles of traditional Indigenous medicine to guide western psychedelic research and practice. Lancet Regional Health. Americas February 1, 2023
- Ayahuasca healing beyond the Amazon: the globalization of a traditional indigenous entheogenic practice Global Networks December 9, 2008
and 13 more in the library