Psychedelic Therapy: Beyond Brain, Embracing Culture
October 4, 2023 Inês Hipólito, Sofia Tzima 2 citations preprint
Cultural embodiment—how a person's cultural background shapes their sense of self—is crucial for understanding psychological experiences and treating mental health conditions. The paper argues that psychedelic-assisted therapy works not by updating a brain computational model, as traditional analytic philosophy suggests, but by enabling changes in a person's culturally situated self-narratives. The psychedelic experience causally facilitates these narrative pattern changes, which underlie therapeutic efficacy. This perspective offers a novel understanding of the therapeutic process and points toward more effective, culturally attuned mental health interventions.