Perceived attachment history predicts psychedelic experiences: A naturalistic study
Journal of Psychedelic Studies – March 05, 2024
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Perceived insecure attachment during development is strongly linked to more intense psychedelic experiences. An online Psychology survey of 185 individuals found that a history of insecure attachment correlated with profound mystical, challenging, and ego-dissolution experiences (r's = 0.19–0.32). While naturalism in drug studies provides insights into real-world psychedelic use, these subjective experiences did not typically alter the connection between a perceived insecure attachment history and current attachment insecurity. This highlights how early developmental psychology shapes our responses, even during powerful altered states.
Abstract
Abstract Background and aims Emerging research indicates that psychedelics may have therapeutic potential by fostering meaningful experiences that act as “inflection points” in people's narratives of personal development. However, psychedelic research has largely failed to address pertinent developmental considerations. We investigated whether attachment-related variables were associated with psychedelic experiences and whether psychedelic experiences moderated expected links between perceived attachment history and current adult attachment orientations. Methods We administered an online survey to an international Jewish sample ( N = 185) with psychedelic experience. The survey included measures about recollection of attachment interactions with parents (perceived attachment history), adult attachment orientations (anxiety, avoidance), and psychedelic phenomenology (mystical experiences, challenging experiences, emotional breakthrough, ego dissolution, sensed presence) associated with respondents' most memorable psychedelic experiences. Results Perceptions of an insecure attachment history were positively linked to all measures of psychedelic phenomenology ( r 's = 0.19–32, p 's mostly < 0.01). In contrast, adult attachment orientations were unrelated to psychedelic phenomenology. Also, psychedelic phenomenology mostly did not moderate the links observed between perceptions of an insecure attachment history and adult attachment orientations. Conclusions Our findings suggest that perceptions of early attachment experiences may be relevant to psychedelic phenomenology. However, subjective experiences associated with naturalistic psychedelic use do not typically attenuate links between a perceived insecure attachment history and attachment insecurity at present.