On psychedelic liberalism and mad trust: towards varieties of willing in extreme experiences

Summary

The article critiques the 'psychotomimetic model' of psychedelics, which contrasts voluntary psychedelic experiences with involuntary psychosis. It argues that this distinction supports the commodification of psychedelics for therapeutic use. By examining literature and conference proceedings, it challenges the notion of willed versus unwilled experiences, highlighting the importance of trust and openness in extreme experiences. This analysis raises questions about the liberal assumptions underlying psychedelic therapy and its potential ethical conflicts.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract The vexed ‘psychotomimetic model’ of psychedelics claims to offer insights into both psychedelic experiences and psychosis, by weaving across these sets of experiences. One enduring opposition to the model distinguishes between psychedelic experiences as voluntary or ‘willed’, and psychosis as an affliction to be endured. This opposition is useful for projects seeking to sanitise and commodify psychedelics as part of emerging therapeutic interventions. This article draws on literature from psychedelic therapeutics, alongside mad studies, phenomenological psychiatry, and proceedings from a conference at their intersections, to destabilise the opposition between willed psychedelic experiences and unwilled psychosis. Through the paradoxical formulation of psychedelic therapy as willful surrender , I consider the central role accorded to trust, curiosity, openness, and letting go in modes of engaging with extreme experiences, whether pathologised or otherwise. In turn this reveals assumptions of the presumed liberal subject of psychedelic therapy, and brings psychedelic medicalisation into uncomfortable proximity with the very boundary violations it is seeking to avoid.

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