The taming of the shrooms. Understanding current discursive struggles over the psychedelic in the light of their historical antecedents

Summary

The article explores the historical context of psychedelic research, linking it to earlier controversies in the 18th and 19th centuries surrounding animal magnetism. It highlights how these historical debates inform current discussions on psychedelic therapy, particularly through discourse analysis of seminal articles from the Johns Hopkins research group. The findings reveal a tension in the contemporary understanding of psychedelics, as current narratives often overshadow their emancipatory and spiritual aspects.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract As the changeful history of psychedelic research and therapy since the 1950s can be assumed to be well enough known to this journal's audience, it is only recalled briefly in this article. Rarely has it been addressed, though, that the discursive struggles through which this history has been spawned have antecedents in much older controversies in the 18th and 19th centuries. As knowledge of this prehistory may shed new light on the current state of affairs in psychedelic matters, this article starts with an account of the transformations that animal magnetism underwent during the so-called ‘long century of mediumship’, transformations by which it was ultimately tamed by science. Based on this historical sensitization, the text then turns to a recent strand of the scientific debate on psychedelic therapy – to seminal journal articles from the Johns Hopkins research group – and subjects these articles to a fine-grained discourse analysis. In doing so, the inner cohesion of the forces that are currently tugging at the psychedelic, mostly pushing aside its emancipatory, resistive, utopian, and ‘spiritual’ connotations, becomes more apparent.

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