De-Centering the Organism: Psychedelic Therapies, Fungi and the Body without Organs
Ernesto Grillo Rabello, Giuliana de Paula Oliveira, Lucas Conforti Protti, Fabio Hebert da Silva
Polymatheia February 16, 2025 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.52521/poly.v18i1.14994 via DOAJ
Summary
Clinical psychology's engagement with psychedelics, particularly mushrooms, opens new avenues for therapy. The Schizoanalysis framework by Deleuze and Guattari provides tools to rethink the psychedelic experience beyond traditional neuroscience concepts of the body. It emphasizes the importance of an 'intensive body' and challenges rigid definitions of identity and experience. While psychedelics can facilitate deconstruction of fixed identities, caution is advised due to potential risks associated with their use.
Study at a glance
| Key finding | Psychedelic compounds and frameworks like Schizoanalysis can enrich therapeutic practices by challenging conventional notions of the body and identity. |
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Abstract
The encounter of clinical psychology with psychedelic compounds, plants, and mushrooms opens up new possibilities for psychotherapy practices. In the Schizoanalysis of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, conceptual and experimental tools are found that not only assist in thinking about the psychedelic experience but also enrich clinical practice. The concept of the Body without Organs, which partly stems from Antonin Artaud’s psychedelic experience with peyote in the Mexican deserts, is central to this approach. The philosophical question of “how to create for oneself a Body without Organs?” involves an ethical, aesthetic, and political task. A shift is proposed, dissociating psychology from the neuroscience linked to the organic body, body-form, reified in the image of the organism. By revisiting the anatomophysiological paradigm, based on Foucault's analyses of disciplinary power and biopower, rigid definitions of the body are questioned, and the field of experience is broadened to include other possible narratives and decompositions. The psychedelic experience is not limited to the organic body, but involves an intensive body, body as force. Psychedelic mushrooms can act as powerful intermediaries, deconstructing fixed forms of subject and body, while the mycelium, decentralized and non-binary, unfolds new possibilities. The implications for psychedelic therapies must be approached with caution and awareness of the risks, as Deleuze and Guattari warn. Presenting a framework that shifts the focus away from human-centered views, capturing the “humusity” of Donna Haraway, a fertile ground is proposed for new narratives and fabulations, where mycelium, rhizomes and seeds can thrive in the folds.