“She Told Me So”: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on the Plant Third and the Messages from Ayahuasca
Rodolfo Olivieri, Christine Avedikian, Mário Eduardo Costa Pereira, Luís Fernando Tófoli
Psychoanalytic Inquiry September 22, 2026 DOI: 10.1080/07351690.2026.2721954 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Ayahuasca |
| Key points | Argues that the ayahuasca "plant third"—a voice experienced as external to both self and other humans—can be illuminated by reading it through Lacanian transference and object-relations concepts such as Winnicottian potential space and Bionian reverie, while treating it and the analytic third as "false equivalents" that remain ontologically incommensurate via Viveiros de Castro's Amerindian perspectivism. Proposes implications for psychotherapy and post-ritual integration, including risks of literalization and the need for mediating thirds. |
Abstract
Ayahuasca users often report receiving “messages” or a silent “voice” experienced as coming from an external instance that is neither the self nor other humans present. Building on Diament, Gomes, and Tófoli’s notion of a “plant third party,” we rename this phenomenon the plant third to foreground the field in which alterity is encountered. We first read the plant third through Lacanian transference, showing how ayahuasca may become a Subject Supposed to Know whose presumed unerring pedagogy contrasts with the analyst’s ethical refusal of completeness. We then propose a transmatricial articulation with object-relations traditions, linking the plant voice to Winnicottian potential space, Bionian reverie and alpha-functioning, and the “field of dreaming” in which an interpreting self emerges. To avoid collapsing Indigenous ontologies into psychological projection, we mobilize Viveiros de Castro’s Amerindian perspectivism and controlled equivocation, treating the plant third and the analytic third as false equivalents that illuminate one another while remaining ontologically incommensurate. We close by outlining implications for psychotherapy and post-ritual integration, including the risks of literalization and the need for mediating thirds.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on ayahuasca, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The globalization of ayahuasca: Harm reduction or benefit maximization? | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond | 2014 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience | 2003 | 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 | |
| Ayahuasca healing beyond the Amazon: the globalization of a traditional indigenous entheogenic practice | 2008 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 21
- The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2014
- Ego-Dissolution and Psychedelics: Validation of the Ego-Dissolution Inventory (EDI) Frontiers in Human Neuroscience June 14, 2016
- The antipodes Of the mind November 7, 2002
- Ayahuasca: Pharmacology, neuroscience and therapeutic potential Brain Research Bulletin March 11, 2016
- Survey of entity encounter experiences occasioned by inhaled N,N-dimethyltryptamine: Phenomenology, interpretation, and enduring effects. Journal of Psychopharmacology September 1, 2020
and 16 more in the library