The role of self-representation

Summary

Psychedelic therapy may work by disrupting and revising how individuals mentally represent themselves. Evidence suggests that psychological insights gained during therapy are linked to positive outcomes, and that psychedelics enhance mindfulness, promoting a non-reactive awareness of inner experiences. Additionally, changes in the Default Mode and Salience networks, which are associated with self-representation, correlate with these positive clinical results. An integrative approach combines psychological insights with neurobiological findings to understand the effects of psychedelics.

Study at a glance

Abstract

‘The role of self-representation’ presents three lines of evidence in support of a simple hypothesis: the central mechanism of psychedelic therapy is the disruption and revision of mental representations of the self. One line of evidence connects experiences of ‘psychological insight’ to positive clinical outcomes, and the insights in question are often autobiographical in character. A second line of evidence shows that psychedelics can elevate mindfulness-related capacities for taking an open, non-reactive attentional stance toward inner experience. These capacities centrally involve changes in the sense of self. A third line of evidence links positive clinical outcomes to changes in two neural systems, the Default Mode and Salience networks. Both are implicated in self-representation by considerable independent evidence. This chapter argues that one can combine these psychological and neurobiological findings into an integrative account of psychedelic therapy by attending to the cognitive or information-processing functions of the neural systems affected by psychedelics.